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I just got my laptop's battery replaced and read a bit about how to prolong it's life. Most people say that the best choice is not to charge it will 100%, but rather to 60-80%. My battery is quite powerful (8 hours declared), so it's okay for me to charge it like this, and I mainly work plugged in.

In Windows which ships with the laptop I can see the way to set the threshold, and there is even the auto mode, where system decides itself how much to charge. Is there something like this in Ubuntu?

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    Do you know what type of battery it is? (I remember hearing that this 80% idea was a myth, but I want to make sure) Jan 19, 2011 at 13:44
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    I have found that what usually kills off my battery life is working plugged in regularly. Just as a suggestion, I would try and run on battery for at least an hour or two every time you use your laptop. I found that doing this actually does help the lifetime of the battery.
    – Will
    Jan 19, 2011 at 13:49
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    This question is very similar to the question asked here askubuntu.com/questions/21351/… by me.
    – nik90
    Jan 19, 2011 at 14:08
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    And as I explained ( with more detail ) in that question, batteries prefer to remain fully charged, not 60-80%. The closer you get to zero, the more often that happens, and the more time spent there, the more wear and tear the battery suffers. You can see this in any battery manufacturer's data sheets.
    – psusi
    Jan 19, 2011 at 14:54
  • Psusi, how could you comment this article? batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/… Does the temperature of the battery change depending on the percentage of it being charged?
    – lyuba
    Jan 26, 2011 at 9:07

2 Answers 2

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For IBM Thinkpads there exist a module tp_smapi to control charge thresholds. It you fix the start charge threshold at 60% and stop at 95%, the battery will charge upto 95% and stop charging (It will not discharge either). Once the AC power goes off the laptop will discharge but will not start recharging, even if plugged into AC, till the battery has discharged below 60%. Its useful feature to increase battery life as Li-ion batteries are best stored at 40%. If you don't often go off AC power the battery will remain at 40-60% as per threshold set by you and hence last for a long time. I'm not aware if the same module would work for other laptops as well. Sam - IBM Thinkpad - R52/R60.

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You can install Dells Airplane manager(Download) when you battery is 80% charged open it and enable airplane mode so now the laptop will not charge and run off ac power.

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  • Isn't it easier just to plug it off?..
    – lyuba
    Jan 20, 2011 at 19:21
  • that would discharge the battery.dells airpalne manager will stop the charging and take the power from ac.also there is nothing hard in clicking "enable aiplane mode"
    – Lincity
    Jan 21, 2011 at 11:17

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