Leaving your laptop always plugged in will kill its battery life faster,
according to a recent report from Wired. In fact, you shouldn't even
let it charge to 100%.
Cadex Electronics CEO Isidor Buchmann
tells the site that ideally users would charge their laptops to 80% and
then drain them to 40%, prolonging their battery life by up to 4x.
The
reason is that each cell in a lithium-polymer battery is charged to a
voltage level. The higher the charge percentage, the higher the voltage
level. The more voltage a cell has to store, the more stress it’s put
under. That stress leads to fewer discharge cycles. For example, Battery
University states that a battery charged to 100 percent will have only
300-500 discharge cycles, while a battery charged to 70 percent will get
1,200-2,000 discharge cycles.
This is simple in theory but
much harder in practice. The report suggests timing how long it takes
your device to charge from 40% to 80% and then setting a timer when you
first plug your laptop in to charge.
If you can remember to follow Buchmann's advice, a four times increase in battery life is a significant improvement.
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