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The battery life of Ubuntu is horrible compared to windows, 1 hour vs 5 hours. I am sure it is because the Nvidia drivers and the hardware running full speed all the time (yes, I know you can switch to Intel graphics, but the CPU would still run full speed while the GPU would be off).

On Ubuntu I can go from 40% to 20% in less than 20 minutes. Doesn't fast draining batteries like this damage them?

I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 on a Lenovo Y720.

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  • Voting to close: "Does rapid discharge damage batteries", regardless of the reason for rapid discharge, seems like a hardware question instead of an Ubuntu question. My rather cheap laptop lasts over four hours, so perhaps there are ways to reduce your discharge rate...but that's not what you asked.
    – user535733
    Jul 6, 2018 at 22:59
  • Questions about hardware are off-topic. You could maybe ask on Super User instead. But a question about why your battery is draining so fast, or why the CPU is always running at full speed would be on-topic.
    – wjandrea
    Jul 6, 2018 at 23:26
  • @wjandrea This one feels like a "gray area". There are existing battery questions that are on-topic: askubuntu.com/questions/662286/… and askubuntu.com/questions/789402/…
    – WinEunuuchs2Unix
    Jul 7, 2018 at 3:40
  • @Win IMO, you could remove any mention of specific OS's from this question and the answers wouldn't be any different, which makes it off-topic. Meanwhile the questions you linked are more like "Why do Ubuntu and my battery interact this way", which is on-topic cause it specifically involves Ubuntu.
    – wjandrea
    Jul 7, 2018 at 17:51
  • @wjandrea Fair enough. I just think it's a gray area. As far as distro-specific the many questions on grub could also be considered Distro Agnostic yet are still on-topic. Personally I would neither vote to close nor leave this question open. It's simply not that important because most of us buy a new Laptop before replacing a battery past it's lifetime...
    – WinEunuuchs2Unix
    Jul 7, 2018 at 17:57

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Not exactly damaged but in theory your battery lifespan will be 5 times shorter.

Assume a battery can be charged from empty to full 1,000 times. Because you only get 1 hour out of Ubuntu vs. 5 hours out of Windows on a single charge you will be charging 5 times more often in Ubuntu. Therefore your battery might only last 1 year in Ubuntu vs. 5 years under Windows.

Take the formula with a grain of salt because there are other factors involved and I've simplified the situation. But it's probably safe to say the battery lifespan would be twice as long in Windows.

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No. If the current draw exceeded safe limits, the notebook would shut down.

Please take a look at accepted methods to reduce power draw at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PowerManagement/ReducedPower

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