Ad hoc wireless networks are power constrained since nodes operate with limited battery energy. Thus, energy consumption is crucial in the design of new ad hoc routing protocols. To design such protocols, we have to look away from the traditional minimum, hop routing schemes. In this, paper, we propose three extensions to the state-of-the-art shortest-cost routing algorithm, AODV. The discovery mechanism in these extensions (LEAR-AODV, PAR-AODV, and LPR-AODV) uses energy consumption as a routing metric. They reduce the energy consumption of the nodes by routing packets to their destination using energy-optimal routes. We show that these algorithms improve the network survivability by maintaining the network connectivity. They carry out this objective with low overhead and without affecting the other wireless network protocol layers.