[SOLVED] optimal policy to prolong your laptop battery

entz · 12-26-2011, 04:25 PM

hi,

i'm reading this article

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a...ased_batteries

and it says:

Quote:

The worst condition is keeping a fully charged battery at elevated temperatures, which is the case when running a laptop on the power grid. Under these circumstances the battery will typically last for about two years, whether cycled or not.

well the bad news for my battery is that i've been keeping it on the grid for the last 2 and half years now since i got this laptop and the gnome battery meter says that i've only 68% of the capacity left .....

what am i supposed to do ?
well what were i supposed to do since the battery is now almost toast ...

i think if had cycled(discharged/recharged) the battery at dod 10% then probably things would be have been better

cheers

dugan · 12-26-2011, 04:33 PM

Here's a recent thread about this:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...y-life-860818/

onebuck · 12-26-2011, 05:06 PM

Hi,

Look at Lithium-ion battery wiki for some useful information.

Quote:

Disadvantages:
Cell life

Charging forms deposits inside the electrolyte that inhibit ion transport. Over time, the cell's capacity diminishes. The increase in internal resistance reduces the cell's ability to deliver current. This problem is more pronounced in high-current applications. The decrease means that older batteries do not charge as much as new ones (charging time required decreases proportionally).

High charge levels and elevated temperatures (whether from charging or ambient air) hasten capacity loss.[47] Charging heat is caused by the carbon anode (typically replaced with lithium titanate which drastically reduces damage from charging, including expansion and other factors).[48]

entz · 12-26-2011, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

Here's a recent thread about this:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...y-life-860818/

well that thread is good but it doesn't address exactly what i'm after , for reference my laptop battery still works but it's capacity has diminished and as for the above article , running it on grid is the problem !

Quote:

Hi,

Look at Lithium-ion battery wiki for some useful information.

yep , that site above provides the same info add to that combination of temperature (from the cpu) meeting the full charged state (please see the above article for reference) results in diminishing capacity !

the question is , how are we supposed to deal with the temperature issue?
and how are we supposed to deal with "NOT keeping the laptop running on grip power all the time" ?

in other words , what's the behavioral policy to adopt which doesn't diminish your battery within 2 years?

and finally , how do you folks use your batteries ?

cheers

onebuck · 12-27-2011, 06:23 AM

Hi,

Periodically discharge or cycle the battery in the appliance. Or remove the battery entirely and just run off AC. Of course the laptop will cycle with power without the battery. If you can afford to have a pair of batteries for the appliance then cycle the use for each.

I do use a cooler for my laptops to insulate my lap and provide the airflow under the laptop. My batteries seem to last longer and not having a heater on my lap helps.

Shutdown the laptop when not in use either via sleep mode or remove power completely.

jefro · 12-27-2011, 03:45 PM

Batteries go bad both by time and use.

It may be best to remove battery when not actually using it as a portable device.

entz · 01-06-2012, 08:03 PM

hello , well actually i still have one question ?

is it possible to set the level of charge of a laptop battery ?
for instance i'm thinking about interfacing with the acpi circuity through some api which would allow the root user to control the battery charging process in particular manually choosing whether to use batter or main power

could that be made possible ?

cheers