Tech Blog

[#1]

Now that most of us have laptops or netbooks, I thought some tips for getting the most out of your battery might be in order. You know how all laptop makers claim you can get hours and hours of   battery life and you never seem to be able to? I’m betting those estimates are based on running a system with so little going on that it couldn’t tell you what time it is, in the real world however we need to get stuff done so here are some real world tips for getting the most out of your battery life.

The first thing to keep in mind is that everything that you do on your machine while it’s on battery power is going to drain the battery. Everything. So if you don’t need it, don’t use it. Let’s start with the basics. Are you using any Bluetooth devices? No? Then make sure Bluetooth is off. Online? If not, turn WiFi off. Both of these should easily be able to be turned off from either a handy menu (on Macs), some utility (on Windows),  a keyboard key, or a little switch on the machine. Both Bluetooth and WiFi can suck a lot of power just being on, so turning them off will make a big difference right away. Since we’re turning things off, how about turning down your screen brightness? Believe it or not your screen brightness can also make a huge difference, so turn it down to where it is just a wee too dark, then turn it up one or two notches. That should be a good level for being able to work and save power. Personally I wind up going two or three notches higher, but that might be just my eyesight (or lack thereof).

Keeping with hardware settings, let’s look at hard disk spin down, screen dimming, and system sleep settings. This is one place where I’m pretty hard core. I figure if I’m not actively using the machine it should start shutting things down as soon as possible. This way if my mind wanders off for a bit, which if you know me is rather often, my machine will enter low-power mode pretty fast. Here is a screen shot of my MacBook Pro’s settings:

The computer sleep setting is about 5 minutes and display about 2 minutes, yeah that’s pretty fast, but if you want to get a lot of time out of your machine you’ll appreciate these settings. Couple last hardware points, it should be obvious but using your DVD/CD drive will suck serious power as will any USB-powered device. When I’m using my EVDO modem, for example, I can almost hear the battery level draining (think giant sucking sound). If you don’t need it, don’t use it! At this point I think we’ve covered almost all the hardware tweaks, now let’s go to software.

Like turning off or down hardware you’re not using, quitting applications you don’t need will save battery power. Each open app needs both processor time and RAM. Using these needs power and the power comes from… Right, you got it. Myself if I’m not online I quit everything down to IM programs. If I’m just writing something, I’ll keep that app and no other running. If I’m feeling really, really power conscious I’ll even switch to something like Abiword which loads almost entirely in memory so it uses less power (since it doesn’t make the hard disk run or tap into much processor power).
Just these tips alone help you get more out of your battery, but how about we turn this up to an 11? You want to reduce using your hard drive even more? Use a RAM disk. A RAM disk is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, it’s a drive that exists entirely in RAM. Since it’s in RAM it is a) very fast and b) battery saving. If you’re working on a document, working from a RAM disk lets you save as much as you wish without making the disk run at all … until you’re ready to shutdown that is. RAM disks are generally dumped as soon as the computer is turned off. Yes, dumped. Gone. Finito. If you don’t move the files to your real drive (or flash drive, etc) you will lose the document. Creating a RAM disk is pretty simple. The function is built into OS X (though not obvious) and easily enabled in Windows. The instructions for turning a RAM disk on for Macs aren’t too hard—Create a RAM disk on your Mac—but I like this app—Esperence DV—because it also provides for auto-starting the disk at boot and saving the files to your disk when you shut down. For Windows this is the method I’ve used in the past with great success—start a RAM disk Windows. A final note on RAM disks, a RAM disk reduces the available RAM you have to run other apps, so don’t max out your RAM disk will all your free RAM it won’t be pretty.
These tips will help you get more time out of your battery, but one last tip is equally important: run your battery down to nothing once a month. If you’re like me, most of the time you’re plugged into an outlet using your laptop, this isn’t the best thing for getting the most life out of your battery. According to Apple what you should do, about once a month, is use your machine on battery power until it shuts down or goes to sleep, then let it charge all the way back up before you use it (over night is good). This process conditions your battery to get the most life out of it.
Even with all these tips, I’d be really surprised if you get the full amount of time as promised from your battery. I think laptop makers test the machines in a different part of space-time than we exist. It’s probably were all our socks that go missing in the dryer are too.

[#2]

On Windows based laptops and netbooks, also be sure to use the Power Saver mode.  I've found that I can get 15-25% more battery life using this mode.  Of course, if you need the processing power, this doesn't work that well, but if you're just accessing the internet or using Word, etc. there's no reason that Power Saver mode won't work for you.  You can easily change this setting by clicking on the icon of the battery in the task bar.

@trishussey, you provide one tip that I actually disagree with - you mention to run down your battery once a month.  The lithium ion batteries no longer need this step.  This was recommended for laptops from 2-3 years ago (and older), but most manufacturers actually no longer recommend doing this with the new lithium ion batteries as it can actually degrade the batteries faster.  This is now only recommended if you need to recalibrate the battery (i.e. if you notice the battery life is not matching with the indicator).  And you most definitely no longer want to change the power settings to ensure that the battery runs all of the way down to 0%.  This can now do considerable damage to the battery.  So, while this is still a useful recommendation on older laptops, it's no longer necessary on newer laptops.  I now only do this step as needed (which is usually 1-2 times a year at max).  Note that if you search for this subject on Google, most of the links are now several years old.  Few updated links are available, but I'll post if I find one (I found a few before, so I do know they are out there ).

[#3]

Krypto, Good advice on the Power Saver setting. I had forgotten about that. It does save a lot of power! As for the battery draining thing I didn't think that was accurate either, but this is straight from Apple: http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

So, I'm trying to use my battery more just to keep it fresh.

[#4]

Lol, hmmm, could it be a scam so that you drain your laptop battery more often, thus resulting in the need to replace it sooner. 

But that said, HP still has that info on their website too, although their technicians all now say that it's outdated.  I wonder if it's the same situation for Apple too...

I've found that realistically, if you use your battery now and again (e.g. for a little while every few days) then it's just fine.  My boyfriend is still using my old HP DV1540CA now 2 1/2 years old and he still gets ~2 hours or just shy of battery life.  I think I maxed out at 2.5-2.75 hours. 

[#5]

Yep that's good advice. Use it on battery for a while, then it just keeps things going. Have you tried the RAM disk trick? It's also great for browser caches!

[#6]

I've gotten the most success stretching my battery life by turning of the wifi.  I get a full extra hour by doing this when I don't need internet.

[#7]

On a related note, did you know the browser you use can impact your battery run-time? LifeHacker found this item: http://lifehacker.com/5359268/extend-your-battery-life-with-the-right-browser

[#8]

@Credible_Chris: Yeah WiFi is a big suck (well after the DVD drive and USB things). Bluetooth can also be a battery suck to nowhere as well.

@Brad: That's what gave me the idea for the post. Interesting (shocking even) that IE8 is on the top of the list. Firefox of course is number two.

[#9]

@trishussey, I haven't tried the RAM disk trick, but then again, with my extra 12-cell battery, it isn't usually as much of an issue anymore. 

I just might have to try that.

@bgrier, I saw that story as well (there are different places reporting it right now).  Great info though as I doubt most of us really considered that before!