How Long Does an Electronic Shelf Label Battery Last?

An electronic shelf label running on a CR2450 coin cell lasts, according to datasheets, between 5 and more than 10 years, but only with few updates a day and at room temperature. What decides the real figure is not the display but how the cell’s energy budget is split between screen refreshes, radio listening and natural ageing.

This page does not repeat the general description of the system, which is in the technology guide. Here we do the arithmetic: how much energy the cell holds, where it goes, and how to carry the catalogue figure over to a specific store. Every lifetime figure is a manufacturer claim. We have found no independently published tests and have measured nothing ourselves.

What is inside: a lithium coin cell

The datasheets we reviewed describe non-rechargeable lithium manganese dioxide cells in the CR format. The most cited is the CR2450: 24.5 mm in diameter and 5 mm high. Two cell makers publish different numbers for the same format, which is itself a lesson in how to read these figures.

Item	Panasonic CR2450	Longsing CR2450
Nominal voltage	3 V	3 V
Nominal capacity	620 mAh	600 mAh
Reference continuous current	0.2 mA (specification load)	max. 8 mA continuous
Peak	not stated in the datasheet	up to 20 mA (indicative)
Operating temperature	-30 to +85 °C	-20 to +60 °C

Panasonic’s figures come from its February 2026 datasheet; Longsing’s from its page on cells for shelf labels, where it warns that peak values are a screening number and do not guarantee that a particular radio waveform will work.

Three details that are easy to miss:

• Capacity is measured at a gentle load. Panasonic’s 620 mAh corresponds to a 0.2 mA drain. A label does not draw current like that: it spends most of its time almost idle and now and then pulls a spike from the cell to run the radio or redraw the screen. Longsing explains that two pulses of the same current (its example: 10 mA for 2 ms or for 2 s) ask very different things of the cell.
• The cell’s temperature range is not the label’s. The cell ships rated to -30 °C, but the assembly is limited by the display: 0 to 40 °C on the standard models we have seen.
• 620 mAh is not the 620 mAh in your label. Makers differ (600 versus 620 mAh in this same format), and the usable capacity depends on the minimum voltage at which the label still works.

The arithmetic: from 5 and 10 years to microamps

You can turn a catalogue promise into an average current by dividing capacity by the hours it must last. This is our own approximation, not a manufacturer figure, and it is useful for comparison.

Model (source)	Total capacity	Claimed years	Condition	Implied maximum average current
SoluM Newton Pro, 1 cell	620 mAh	over 5	2 updates/day, 0-40 °C	about 14 µA
SoluM Newton Pro, 2 cells	1,240 mAh	over 10	2 updates/day, 0-40 °C	about 14 µA
Vusion 2.6, 2 cells (2020 card)	1,240 mAh	5	2 updates/day, 5-40 °C	about 28 µA
Vusion 2.6 F freezer, 2 cells (2020 card)	1,240 mAh	3	1 update/day, -25 to 30 °C	about 47 µA
Waveshare (CNX Software, 2025)	1,200 mAh	about 5	manufacturer figure	about 27 µA

We use 620 mAh per cell, the Panasonic value, and 365 days per year. If the actual cell is 600 mAh, the results drop by 3%.

Three things come out of the table.

SoluM doubles the cells and doubles the years: the average draw does not change. That is what you would expect if the label draws a nearly constant current, and it shows that the second cell buys time, not efficiency. If a supplier offers a “10-year version”, ask what that second cell costs and weighs.

Vusion’s standard label sits at twice SoluM’s draw. A 2020 product card from Diebold Nixdorf, which resold Vusion labels, gives the Vusion 2.6 five years with two cells and two updates a day. SoluM claims more than ten on the same two cells at the same rhythm. Either the Vusion label draws about twice the average current or its figure is more conservative, and the sheets do not let us tell which. Waveshare lands in the same range with a single 1,200 mAh cell. A cautious number that holds up is worth more than an optimistic one, and a 2020 card may not describe the model on sale today.

Freezer labels pay for the cold. The same card lists the Vusion 2.6 F, a frost label rated from -25 to 30 °C, at three years with one update a day on two cells. That works out at about 47 µA, well above any ambient model in the table. Neither sheet says how much of the gap comes from the cell delivering less in the cold and how much from the label itself.

Where it goes, and what each source says

Screen refreshes

An e-paper panel (definition) uses nothing to hold an image, but changing it costs energy. DisplayModule gives per-refresh figures: 15 mJ for a full black-and-white change, 45 mJ for a four-colour partial change and 3.5 mJ for a fast partial one. In its example with a 220 mAh CR2032, it estimates about 0.003 mAh per full refresh and points out that natural leakage uses more than the display.

With that per-refresh figure, which comes from a display-module maker and not from a particular label, the split on a 620 mAh CR2450 over five years looks like this:

Updates per day	Refreshes in 5 years	Charge used (at 0.003 mAh)	Share of 620 mAh
2	3,650	about 11 mAh	1.8%
20	36,500	about 110 mAh	18%
48	87,600	about 263 mAh	42%

Up to a handful of updates a day, refreshing barely scratches the cell. From dozens of changes a day it becomes a serious item. The example is a lower bound for a real label: it leaves out the radio that receives each change, retries when the signal is poor, and colour, since in DisplayModule’s figures a four-colour partial change costs three times a full black-and-white one.

This changes what each sector should watch. A grocery store with the occasional price change sits at the 1.8% row; a buffet whose dishes rotate every service, or a department with time-of-day promotions, can be much higher. For the buffet case, the hospitality note works through two manufacturer sheets that claim up to ten years at two updates a day and up to five at four.

The radio

Here there is a gap. A label cannot be switched off: it has to wake up every so often to find out whether there is a change for it. How often it wakes, what protocol it uses and how much that costs is what most separates one model from another, and the sheets we have seen do not break it out. The vendor comparison records which radio each one declares. The implied average current in the table above includes the radio, but we do not know how much of it.

What you can ask the supplier for is the idle current with the radio listening and the label’s polling interval, and whether that figure depends on the distance to the gateway. If lifetime changes with coverage quality, the offer should say so.

NFC and LEDs

Some models’ sheets mention NFC and extra functions such as flashing to locate a label. We found none that says what using them costs in battery. If your tender requires NFC or light signalling, ask for the claimed lifetime with that function in use, not the figure for the model without it.

Cold and heat

Longsing sums it up: low temperature can reduce the energy and power available from the cell, and high temperature speeds up its deterioration in storage. It gives no numbers. Two label makers do publish comparable pairs. SoluM’s freezer variant (-25 to 0 °C) claims more than 5 years with two cells and one update a day, against more than 10 at two updates for its ambient model with two cells. Vusion’s frost label drops to 3 years at one update a day, against 5 at two for the ambient 2.6, according to the 2020 card. Read them as pointers, not laws: a freezer model may carry a different radio or panel, not just a colder cell. What to check before putting labels on a refrigerated unit is covered in electronic shelf labels and cold.

Leakage and age

According to Longsing, cells of this type are characterised by long shelf life and low self-discharge, although it gives no figure. In DisplayModule’s example, static leakage (2 µA) outweighs the refreshes. If heat accelerates deterioration in storage, as Longsing says, ask how long and under what conditions labels are stored before installation.

Turning the catalogue figure into your store’s figure

Datasheets compare labels under laboratory conditions. Four questions turn the figure into a commitment you can verify.

1. How many updates a day? Ask for the lifetime at your own rhythm, not the catalogue’s. Count promotions, corrections and campaign changes, not just the price review.
2. At what temperature? Make it the temperature of each zone: ambient, chilled, frozen, outdoors.
3. Black-and-white or colour? Colour panels use more per refresh.
4. What counts as “end of life”? The sheet does not always say whether it means a flat cell or the point at which the label stops refreshing reliably; get it in writing.

A practical rule: ask for the calculation in writing, with the assumed cell capacity, the average current and the number of refreshes per day, and compare it with the table above. If two offers with the same cells promise lifetimes that differ by a factor of two, ask why.

The final answer comes from a pilot with real labels in your most demanding zones. Also ask whether the platform reports each label’s battery level and warns before it runs out; without that data, a pilot measures little.

Replaceable or sealed cell

Longsing, which makes cells for labels, lists a removable holder versus soldered tabs as a decision for the label maker. The big manufacturers’ label datasheets almost never say which they use. It matters for three reasons:

• With a holder, the swap takes seconds. With a soldered cell, you replace the whole label or send it for repair.
• A sealed housing can help against moisture and dust, which matter in cold and outdoor settings, but then changing the cell is harder; ask how each model resolves that trade-off.
• If the maker sells the 10-year version with a second cell, that cell takes up space and has to be paid for.

Ask, in writing, whether the cell can be changed without tools, how long it takes, exactly which cell is fitted and whether the used label can be reused. The answer feeds into total cost: renting versus buying decides, among other things, who bears the swap, and the TCO calculator lets you test the effect of a mid-life replacement.

One alternative that takes the cell out of the problem is rail-powered systems. Pricer launched its Avenue in January 2026, with a powered rail that feeds the labels, according to the company’s launch announcement. The problem moves from the cell to the rail: installation, compatible fixtures and price.

End of life and the EU Batteries Regulation

What happens when the cell runs out is already partly regulated. Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 on batteries entered into force on 17 August 2023 and has applied since 18 February 2024, according to the European Commission. Its Article 11 requires that, from 18 February 2027, portable batteries incorporated into appliances can be removed and replaced. According to the Commission’s guidance on that article, summarised by a law firm, removal must be possible with commonly available tools, without damaging the battery or the appliance, and the article allows exceptions and partial exemptions where replacement is done by an independent professional.

We have found no official source saying whether electronic shelf labels fall inside Article 11 or within one of its exceptions. According to third-party summaries there is also a draft Commission delegated act (July 2026) on the list of exceptions, whose official text we could not read and whose status we could not confirm. This page cannot settle the question. The question for the supplier is simple and should be answerable in writing:

• Does the product being sold to me comply with Article 11, or does it rely on an exemption? Which one?
• Who collects the labels and cells at the end of life, and at what cost?
• Is there a document describing the cell’s composition, in particular whether it is declared on the product sheet?

A note for the UK: the regulation above is EU law, and Great Britain has its own battery rules, which we have not reviewed here. If you buy for a UK site, ask the supplier which regime applies.

What to do with all this

• Ask for each model’s lifetime at your updates per day and your temperatures, not the catalogue’s, plus the calculation behind it.
• Distrust a very high figure without conditions and a very low one without explanation alike; compare the implied average current, as in the table above.
• Find out whether the cell can be replaced and who pays, before signing, and ask about Article 11 of the regulation.
• Check everything in a pilot with real labels and, if the platform allows, read the battery level during the pilot.

To translate this into euros, the TCO calculator lets you enter your own cell-replacement schedule.