Consider this your not so amateur guide to getting the most out of your laptop battery.
Out of the box
When you first get a new computer or new device that uses a rechargeable battery, you should know that it needs to be calibrated.
To accomplish this, plug your device in to a power source immediately after you turn it on (or right before ideally), and then let it fully charge. Once it’s at 100% (and this means fully, not almost fully charged), keep it plugged into the power source for another 2 hours. Once that’s done, allow the charge to deplete until the unit is forced to stop functioning. If you’re calibrating your computer, then make sure you save your work before it’s forced to sleep mode. Once the unit shuts off, keep it off for at least 5 hours.
warning: Make sure that you’re only performing a calibrate once every two or three months. Allowing a battery to deplete completely actually shaves a little off the top, diminishing it’s full charge capacity. It’s marginal if it’s only done once in a while (4 times a year won’t affect you).
Altering your usage to get more battery life
Some things you’ll do on your computer will cause your battery to deplete faster than normal. Reading from the DVD or CD drive, running full brightness, having multiple applications running in the background, using wireless internet; all of these are processes that use your battery up quickly. If you’re not using an application, close it. If you’re working offline, disable your computers wifi broadcast (by turning the radio off, or disabling airport).
For cellphones, it’s important to note that if you’re out of a service area, and you’re keeping it on, it’s battery is going to die quicker than usual as well; broadcasting trying to find a signal takes more. For Smartphones and PDAs you need to understand that any media (audio and video) is draining battery many times faster. Audio volume, and screen brightness are large factors too. Having bluetooth or wifi enabled when it’s not necessary will diminish battery life as well. Charging an external device like your phone or an iPod through your computer, drains the battery dramatically, you’d be impressed at how fast it goes. Essentially the more you *do* with your device, the faster the battery will die. On that note, the more you’re doing with your computer, the longer it’ll take for it to charge as well; if you’re rushing to get your battery to 100%, you’re better off turning the device off so all the juice is heading straight to the battery.
Understanding battery cycles.
A batteries health is determined by how well it performs from the first day you used it. A typical laptop battery should still maintain 80% of it’s charge after 300 cycles. A cycle is defined as ‘full usage of it’s entire potential’. This means that a battery that last 4 hours, needs to be used for 4 hours (not necessarily in a row) to lose 1 cycle. You can use it for one hour today, two hours tomorrow, and half an hour on the next two days, still recharging it every night, and that would only drain the battery of one cycle. Contact your manufacturer or do some research online (google.ca) to find out how to check your device’s battery health.
A Quick Note About Battery Percentage
I’m sure you’ve noticed before that you’ve been able to quickly charge your battery to 80% (let’s say in 30 minutes), but have to wait another 2 hours for it to reach 100%. That’s because from the lowest point, each percentage above that holds a slightly longer charge. This means that the 1% between 0 and 1, is much much weaker than the 1% between 99 and 100. That’s why sometimes you’ll watch your computer sit at 99% for half an hour before completing it’s 100% charge. Don’t be fooled when you see your device at 20% battery life, it’s going to drain much faster than it did from 100% to 80%.
