Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have wide applications in environmental monitoring fields. Many algorithms were proposed for efficient information gathering. Especially the cluster based routing schemes are getting attention due to their energy efficiency. But in most of the clustering schemes, the base station (BS) which is used to gather the information is assumed to be located far from the field. In this paper, we analyzed the impact of BS location on the energy efficiency of the network. The proposed location improves the first node die (FND) by 20%, 14%, and 17%, improves the last node die (LND) by 16%, 13% and 39% in uniformly distributed field, improves FND by 16%, 14%, and 15%, improves LND by 6%, 12%, and 58% in randomly distributed field compared to the famous low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) algorithm, Energy based algorithm (ENERGY), and the recent algorithm energy efficient structured clustering algorithm (EESCA) respectively. © 2017 IEEE.