| Laptop
Batteries
by Daniel Robbins
Do you own
a laptop? If so, then, no doubt, you are aware that it has a battery;
and that the battery allows you to use your laptop without plugging
it in. Did you know, however, that there are ways to take care of,
and get more out of, your battery? |
|
Your
laptop probably has a Lithium Ion battery. Lithium Ion (Li-Ion)
technology allows you to charge and recharge your battery whenever
you want, without having to use up all the battery’s energy
first (in fact, you will actually get more out of it by recharging
it when 40% of its energy has been used, than by always letting
it run down and then recharging it) . The only reason you would
“run down” your battery would be to calibrate the energy
gauge. Doing this allows you to accurately monitor the energy level
of your battery. It is recommended that you calibrate the energy
gauge once every 30 recharges or so. Of course, in respect to not
needing to be run down every time they are recharged; Li-Ion batteries
are distinct from Nickel Cadmium (or NI-Cad) and Nickel Metal Hydride
(NiHM) batteries, which should be recharged from a state of complete
depletion.
A couple of facts to keep in mind regarding
Li-Ion batteries, however, are:
• They should never be stored immediately
after being “run-down”; because the battery’s
“smart controller” (which ironically serves to safeguard
against deep discharge) may use up the remaining energy, plunging
the battery into a state of deep discharge! You do not want this
to happen, because it would seriously damage your battery! If you
must store your Li-Ion battery (and I recommend using it rather
than storing it, if possible) store it at 40% capacity (i.e. with
60% of the charge used up) in a cool, dry environment. The smart
controller only uses a trickle of energy, so “40% capacity”
should be plenty to keep the controller going. If you are storing
the battery for more than a year, then monitor the capacity and
restore it to 40% yearly.
• As mentioned above, the higher the
temperature, and the higher the capacity, the faster the battery
will age. That is why storing it at 40% capacity in a cool place
is better than 100% capacity in a warm (or hot) place. It is also
why you might want to remove the battery from the laptop if it is
continuously plugged into an alternating current (A/C) outlet for
two weeks or more (the heat of the laptop will simply hasten the
aging of your redundant battery). (Of course, one drawback to this
scenario is that your laptop will “die” if unplugged
or plagued by a power failure, whereas if your battery is intact
and has at least some useable charge, your laptop will not immediately
“die”). (Also, if you remove your battery, be careful
not to let it, and the battery cavity in the laptop (the contacts
in particular), get dirty).
• Li-Ion batteries “get old”
even if they are not being used – so if a Li-Ion battery has
been sitting in stock for a year or more, it will not be as good
as one that was just manufactured. Therefore, if such an “old”
Li-Ion battery is “on sale”, well, it should be!
Speaking of laptop prices, how much are
they? They are generally from $120 to $180. The more cells a battery
has, the more it will likely cost – but, then again, the longer
it will last you on any one charge (then, yet again, it will also
take up more space, and therefore may not fit certain laptops).
Where applicable (though not applicable with Lithium Polymer (or
“LiPo”) batteries) Laptop batteries generally range
from 6-cell to 12-cell (there are also 3-cell, 4-cell, 8-cell, and
9-cell batteries).
How long the batteries last depends on how
much energy your laptop consumes, but a 6-cell can last approximately
two hours, and a 12-cell can last four. Turning off unused devices
(such as the Bluetooth, quick cam, and wireless devices) and switching
your LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) brightness, graphics card, CPU
(Central Processing Unit), CPU fan, etc., to “power saving”
mode can all help you get more useful time.
|
|
