Wireless sensor networks have already enabled numerous embedded wireless applications such as military, environmental monitoring, intelligent building, etc. Because micro-sensor nodes are supposed to operate for months or even years with very limited battery power source, it is a challenge for researchers to obtain long operating hour without scarifying original system performances. In this paper, the energy consumption sources of the wireless sensor networks are firstly analyzed, with the digital processing and radio transceiver units being emphasized. Then, we introduce the design scheme of our energy-aware wireless sensor network (GAINS). In GAINS, techniques to conserve the energy are exploited including the energy optimization node, software and energy-efficient communication protocol. The design architecture of our ultra low power wireless sensor network (WO-LPP)is specially presented.