Useful info about laptop batteries

Charging notebook computer batteries used to be easy in the good old days of Nickel Cadmium system and lead acid cell batteries. All you had to do was build a circuit that would adjust the voltage in such a way that the charging current did not exceed 50% of the notebook battery's milliAmp hour (mAh) capacity. A couple of hours later you had a charged laptop computer battery. A few milliAmps above or below the maximum capacity were easily tolerated, with only a slight degradation in the overall life of notebook computer batteries.

Today’s notebook batteries are lithium-ion ones, known commonly as li-on. Lithium Ion notebook computer batteries are the most advanced technology in terms of energy generated per pound. The important thing about batteries is Ah, which is amp per hour.

Ah shows the capacity of amp movement in an hour. Level of this unit determines use time of notebook with battery. Of course power requirements of your notebook affect life of the battery. This is while some notebooks (heavy configured multimedia laptops) have 2-3 hours of life during some other laptops (especially ones with small screen or SSD) can have battery usage time up to 8 hours even though they all use the same battery. Also most of the notebook brands offer an extra accessory option named Double battery that provides twice amps per hour when compared to normal ones.

Normally lithium ion batteries will perform a 600 to 800 charge/discharge cycle. This means a life between 1,5 and 3 years. As described above, when you use your notebook battery, re-filling source (AC adapter) will remain unnecessarily pinned.

The second most important point is, each filling-emptying cycle (or use) of battery will reduce performance. Of course this is not surprising. However, according to the time when you compare to the first use, it will surprise you.

Lithium Ion notebook computer batteries are the most advanced technology in terms of energy generated per pound

Below here are some advices for proper notebook battery usage:

1 - New notebook batteries are generally offered empty. The first filling has to be as long as possible (minimum 4 hours) and do not use the battery before fully charged.

2 – Don’t wait for battery to be completely empty to charge again, that method was for old type batteries.

3 – If you didn’t use your battery for a while, don’t try to fully charge it, use it at least its occupancy rate is 10%.

4 - Do not leave your battery in your car in the summer. Hot batteries discharge very quickly, and cold ones can't create as much power.

5 - Make sure to plug your notebook charger adapter into a UPS and not directly into a power outlet or surge protector.

6 - If you have a nickel-metal hydride battery, completely drain and recharge the battery once a month to maximize its capacity to hold a charge.

7 - Fully charge new battery packs before use. New pack needs to be fully charged and discharged (cycled) a few times before it can condition to full capacity.

8 - For notebook that work as Desktop Replacement, the battery should be re-installed every 3-4 weeks and allowed to fully discharge.

9 - Leaving a battery in a notebook while using an electrical outlet for long periods of time will keep the battery in a constant state of charging up and that will reduce the life cycle of the battery.

10 - Tweak your Power Options.  Set your screen and hard drive to go off after a few minutes, and additionally make sure your system is set to go into standby and/or hibernate.  If you don’t mind a potential performance hit, setting your notebook to run in “max battery” mode will run your notebooks processors at its minimum operating frequency giving you a nice increase in run time.

11 - Use hibernate over standby, standby still puts drain on your laptop’s battery where hibernate puts your computer into an off state.

12 - Remember that when you have removed the battery from a notebook while using with an electrical outlet – the automatic battery backup is no longer functional. Make sure to plug your notebook into an uninterrupted power source (UPS) not directly into an outlet or surge protector.