The Power & Reliability Aware Protocol (PoRAP) has been developed to provide efficient communication by means of energy conservation without sacrificing reliability. This has been achieved using direct communication, adaptive transmission power adaptation and intelligent scheduling. The key capabilities of PoRAP make it suitable for environmental and habitat monitoring systems. Several experiments were designed and implemented using TinyOS components located at base station and sources. A set of experimentation was set up to determine power adaptation, achieved reliability and energy conservation. From measuring the Received Signal Strength Indicator, the Packet Reception Rate was estimated. Timing relationships were established to predict delays and to determine the required slot size for a schedule based protocol. Statistical analysis of the derived measurements demonstrated significant communication ranges for both indoor and outdoor environments. Further, by adapting the power, the protocol was able to maintain network performance in an optimal region.