31 C
Dhaka
Saturday, April 20, 2024

AC Power Or Battery Who Should Be In Charge?

It goes without saying that laptops are indispensable devices that modern people cannot do without. Though it is easy to handle, it too, like all machines, have limitations. One of the frequent quandaries of laptop users is about battery life.  Should you leave the AC power connected or should you let the battery drain and then recharge? Here we look at these issues and more. The nature of the beast The life of a lithium ion battery gets shorter as it gets used. The more the battery is charged and discharged, the more it will lose potency. Fully draining the batter (down to 0 percent) will shorten the life of batter more than lighter discharges. But that’s not the only consideration.

Temperature is one of the main factors in this case. High temperature is probably the biggest killer of battery life. High temperatures exacerbate the already heated battery that is constantly working to take in charge and produce electricity. If you have a laptop that gets very hot then there are two things that can be done: invest in a laptop cooler, though one might reasonably prefer getting a new battery than getting a cooler. You may also consider have the battery detached when running on AC power.

But then you have the risk of accidentally unplugging the power while the battery is not in.Back to Lithium Ion batteries,the truth is that they have limited shelf-life anyway. If one leaves a lithium-ion battery on the shelf unused, it will weaken the battery life with time. The amount of charge that the battery holds during the time of being stored affects its lifetime. A battery stored at 100% charge ends up with shorter battery life than one stored at 40-50%. So if you think you are going to leave a laptop for a long time and are worried about battery life, you should drain the battery down to 40%. Batteries should be cared for properly as they are crucial part of our mobile devices or laptops and battery technology hasn’t advanced as fast as other technologies.

Avoid frequent full discharges

Modern devices use Lithium Ion batteries, which work differently and have no memory effect. Actually, completely discharging a Li-ion battery is bad for it. You should try to maintain shallow discharges like discharge the battery to 40-70% before recharging it. You should be sure that the battery never goes below 20% except in some rare situations.

Don’t leave the battery at 0% 

Virtually, the battery wouldn’t discharge all the way to “0”, mainly because operating systems typically would have preventive mechanisms in place, so, that the critical level never reaches 0 percent. But if it does go beyond the critical level, which is unlikely to be actual 0 percent, you need to recharge it as soon as possible. You don’t need to race to power outlet when your favorite laptop dies, but don’t throw it in your drawer and leave it there for weeks without charging it. If you do so, the battery may become incapable of holding a charge at all and dying totally.

Plugging the laptop in all the time is okay, but…

The battery’s temperature is the main thing you need to worry about. It is okay to leave your laptop plugged in at your desk when you’re using it. As Laptop won’t “overcharge” the battery, it will stop charging when it reaches capacity. However, just as you shouldn’t store your laptop’s battery at full capacity in a closet, you shouldn’t leave your laptop plugged in for months on end with the battery at full capacity.

Battery University says that “the worst situation is keeping a fully charged battery at elevated temperatures.” If your laptop produces a lot of heat, removing it might be a good idea. If you have a fairly cool laptop that you occasionally discharge a reasonable amount, leaving it plugged in even for days on end shouldn’t be a problem. Batteries will wear down Li-ion batteries will wear down over time alike all other batteries, holding less and less charge. According Apple, its own laptop batteries will come down to 80% of their original capacity after “up to” 1000 full discharge cycles. Other manufacturers commonly rate their batteries 300 to 500 cycles. The batteries can still be used after this point, but they’ll continue losing capacity the more you use them. Heat and aging will decrease the battery’s life.

Whatever you do, your devices’ batteries will slowly wear down over time. With utmost care, you can make them go on a little longer. Hopefully, your device will be due for an upgrade by the time its battery dies.

We can always check the status by looking into the ‘Power’ section in your operating system. It should provide the information regarding the charging status and you can see how much charge is remaining in  mAh and a l s o the cycle count.

 

Read more related articles here

Related Articles

CLOUD COMPUTING SECURITY

Cloud Computing Security Issues, Threats and Controls

0
Cloud Computing and service models  The official NIST definition (NIST 800-145) of cloud computing says, “Cloud Computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand...
API and Open Banking

API and Open Banking: Way for New Service Innovation for Banks and FinTech Companies

0
The people who gathered at a hall room of a city hotel in last month had one thing in common—they all are working in...
ISO 2001

ISO 27002: 2022 Implementation vs Reality

0
After almost a decade, ISO27001: 2013 is going to publish its new iteration of ISO27001:2022 in second (2nd) Quarter this year1. But prior to...
Deepfakes: The Synthetic Media I want to believe

Deepfakes: The Synthetic Media I want to believe

0
What Are Deepfakes? A deepfake is a sort of "synthetic media," which refers to material (such as images, audio, and video) that has been modified...
The power of API platforms

The power of API platforms brings the open banking promise into sharper focus

0
Open banking is a global phenomenon whose merits are felt in virtually every time zone, including those in the Asia-Pacific region. In contrast to...
Blockchains Gaming and Collusion

“Blockchains: Gaming and Collusion- A Reading in Political Economy”:  Futuristic Exploration with Fact-based Analysis

0
In this digital age, it has become quite common for us to constantly remain mesmerized by fascinating technologies.  However, deeper thoughts about those technologies,...