Li-Ion Notebook Battery's :: The facts of life….

The latest generation of Li-Ion batteries as used in notebook computers are quite long lived. I currently use a HP ZBook Laptop that has a 60 Watt hour flat Li-Ion battery pack. HP Supplies a battery test utility that I have used every month since getting the PC. It records the number of charge cycles and the current full charge capacity of the battery.

 

Battery pack design as used in my HP ZBook Notebook.

My normal usage is that the PC is plugged in 50% of the time, and I might drain it nominally 20 to 50% when it is unplugged. About once a month I will drain it pretty far down doing something offline for a number of hours (like running some experiment in the lab).

The “Total charge cycles” counter counts a charge cycle when the battery gets a full charge capacity put in it. It doesn’t matter if the charge is fully 100% or ten charge cycles of 10% - both of these count as one full charge cycle.

Over the past 27 Months I have averaged about 10 charge cycles per month, that’s probably less than a real “Road warrior” would do I’m sure.

The battery capacity has decreased better than advertised. The rule of thumb is that these Li-Ion batteries will loose around 10% of their capacity per year. This battery has been loosing just a little less than 6% per year.

 

The loss of capacity in this particular battery as measured every month.

Article By: Steve Hageman www.AnalogHome.com   

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