4 Tips Laptop is always connected to the power is it a good idea ?
Laptop is always connected to the power is it a good idea. Everyone wonders whether to increase battery life and, whether it is useful or harmful to keep the laptop always connected to electricity. Battery efficiency is subject to natural declines over time, and already after a few months after purchase, the maximum charge (and consequent lifetime) of each battery will be less than it was at the beginning.
This is because the power accumulators normally used in electronic products, thus in notebooks and also smartphones, are always only of two types of technologies: lithium-ion or lithium polymer. In both cases, however, the raw material is lithium, and this chemical makes batteries very unstable and sensitive to factors such as temperature, charging voltage, and the minimum amount of energy in the battery before recharging. Here, then, are some practical tips on how to maximize laptop battery life and durability.
Don’t recharge to 100 percent
Let’s dispel a myth right away: you cannot overcharge a laptop battery even if you leave it plugged in for days on end. The built-in battery control chip will automatically stop charging when 100% is reached. However, always charging a battery to its maximum may not be the best strategy to extend its life.
Several empirical tests by the Battery University website show that if a battery is always recharged to 100% it can sustain 300 to 500 charge and discharge cycles, while the same battery recharged to 85-90% can sustain 600 to 1,000. By giving up just 15% of the total charge, therefore, we can double the life of our battery. If we stop recharging at 65%, on the other hand, the same battery can sustain up to 4,000 recharging cycles and that is to last eight times longer. With such a low charge, however, our laptop’s battery life will probably be insufficient for daily work. So better to stop charging at between 80 and 90 percent.
Temperature issue
Another determining factor in the health of a battery is the temperature to which it is exposed, both when the electronic device is off, when it is on, and during charging. Other tests, performed by Battery University just 3 months after the battery was manufactured, showed that it can reach a different maximum charge depending on the temperature of the environment in which the battery was placed during those 90 days.
Batteries held at zero degree temperature reached 94 percent of maximum charge after three months while those held at 60 degrees lost 40 percent of their energy storage capacity, stopping at 60 percent charge. Tests show that the health of the battery collapses once it rises above 30 degrees Celsius.
Disconnecting the battery, what manufacturers say
Interestingly, notebook manufacturers offer different guidance on whether or not to keep the battery connected to the power grid at all times. There is no common thesis. For example, HP says you should not keep the battery always on charge for more than two consecutive weeks, and Dell says always on charge is not a problem. Acer recommends always removing the battery if the laptop is plugged in, while Apple says leaving it on charge is not recommended but offers no more specific guidance.
Battery always on a charge, is it good or bad?
As we have just shown you, there is no universally recognized valid guidance on whether the laptop battery should always be left plugged in. However, there are some common sense rules we can give you, starting with test results. As you may have guessed, a determining factor in the life of a battery over time is temperature, so you should avoid exposing the battery to a temperature above 25-30 degrees. It is to be said, however, that every laptop when it’s on heats up at least a little (and high-performance ones heat quite a bit), and the heat produced by the processor, RAM, and other electronic components is also transmitted to the battery.
So if you work in an already heated environment, it would be wise not to keep the battery connected and charging while you have the laptop on. At the same time, if you remove the battery make sure it has a remaining charge between 50 and 75 percent and store it in the coolest place possible. Your battery will not last forever, but if you follow these tips it may last longer.