Battery
Prolong Laptop Battery Life
25.April.2010 07:24 Filed in: Tech Tips
What can I do to prolong the life of my
laptop battery?
The Staff MacBooks that are being distributed during Spring 2010 are rated for 7-8 hours of battery life. Often times, this will mean that the laptop can be used throughout an entire school day by teachers and students. Nevertheless, to ensure this, there are some settings that can be changed that can maximize battery life. Staff members are encouraged to set these settings in this way, and then change them only when necessary. Changing them back when done with the need for that setting.
Turn off Bluetooth radio
As we have stated during initial trainings, staff members should not bring wireless devices, such as a Bluetooth mouse, to school. There are just too many wireless devices that we want to minimize the amount of interference. We have left the Bluetooth radio in the computer open to use, though, so staff members can take advantage of it when they are outside the District or if it should be needed in the future for a specific accessory at school. When your Bluetooth setting is on, which it is by default, the computer is constantly using power to search for other Bluetooth devices that might be in range to connect to. This is an unnecessary use of power if you are not going to use those devices. So, to save power and extend battery life, just turn off the Bluetooth radio.
Turn off the Bluetooth radio, by clicking on the Bluetooth icon in the white Menu Bar at the top of the screen and choosing “Turn Bluetooth Off” from the menu.
Once the Bluetooth is off, the Bluetooth icon will be grayed out in the white Menu Bar at the top of the screen.
If you should need the Bluetooth at some point in the future, just go back to this menu and turn it back on.
Dim your screen
Your laptop comes with a bright and glossy monitor. It looks beautiful, but your computer’s monitor uses tons of the machine’s power. To conserve energy and prolong battery life, you can dim the screen. In most lighting conditions, particularly inside our school buildings, you can easily use your monitor at the lowest brightness setting. This will save lots of energy and can significantly prolong battery life.
To dim your screen, simply use the decrease brightness key on the top row of the keyboard.
Keep as few applications as possible running
On a Mac or PC, you can have multiple applications (also known as programs or software) running at the same time. For example, when doing “desk work,” we typically leave Entourage and iChat open no matter what else we are doing (i.e., using Word, Keynote, or Excel). While it can increase productivity to have multiple applications running at the same time, you should also only have applications open that you need open. Running applications unnecessarily requires your computer to work harder, running more processes in the background, and this uses more energy, decreasing battery life.
You can easily tell which applications are open by which ones include a white dot to the right of the application icon on the dock. (See the picture below, which shows that Microsoft Word is open.)
To close applications, be sure to quit the application when you are done with it. Do not simply click the red dot in the upper left corner of the application window.
Rather, quit applications by:
-Holding down the mouse over the application’s icon on the Dock and selecting Quit from the contextual menu that will pop up after a moment
These tricks will help your battery last even longer when you are not plugged in!
The Staff MacBooks that are being distributed during Spring 2010 are rated for 7-8 hours of battery life. Often times, this will mean that the laptop can be used throughout an entire school day by teachers and students. Nevertheless, to ensure this, there are some settings that can be changed that can maximize battery life. Staff members are encouraged to set these settings in this way, and then change them only when necessary. Changing them back when done with the need for that setting.
Turn off Bluetooth radio
As we have stated during initial trainings, staff members should not bring wireless devices, such as a Bluetooth mouse, to school. There are just too many wireless devices that we want to minimize the amount of interference. We have left the Bluetooth radio in the computer open to use, though, so staff members can take advantage of it when they are outside the District or if it should be needed in the future for a specific accessory at school. When your Bluetooth setting is on, which it is by default, the computer is constantly using power to search for other Bluetooth devices that might be in range to connect to. This is an unnecessary use of power if you are not going to use those devices. So, to save power and extend battery life, just turn off the Bluetooth radio.
Turn off the Bluetooth radio, by clicking on the Bluetooth icon in the white Menu Bar at the top of the screen and choosing “Turn Bluetooth Off” from the menu.
Once the Bluetooth is off, the Bluetooth icon will be grayed out in the white Menu Bar at the top of the screen.
If you should need the Bluetooth at some point in the future, just go back to this menu and turn it back on.
Dim your screen
Your laptop comes with a bright and glossy monitor. It looks beautiful, but your computer’s monitor uses tons of the machine’s power. To conserve energy and prolong battery life, you can dim the screen. In most lighting conditions, particularly inside our school buildings, you can easily use your monitor at the lowest brightness setting. This will save lots of energy and can significantly prolong battery life.
To dim your screen, simply use the decrease brightness key on the top row of the keyboard.
Keep as few applications as possible running
On a Mac or PC, you can have multiple applications (also known as programs or software) running at the same time. For example, when doing “desk work,” we typically leave Entourage and iChat open no matter what else we are doing (i.e., using Word, Keynote, or Excel). While it can increase productivity to have multiple applications running at the same time, you should also only have applications open that you need open. Running applications unnecessarily requires your computer to work harder, running more processes in the background, and this uses more energy, decreasing battery life.
You can easily tell which applications are open by which ones include a white dot to the right of the application icon on the dock. (See the picture below, which shows that Microsoft Word is open.)
To close applications, be sure to quit the application when you are done with it. Do not simply click the red dot in the upper left corner of the application window.
Rather, quit applications by:
- - Holding down “Command” + “Q” on your keyboard as the Quit keyboard shortcut
- - Choosing Quit from the application’s main entry on the menu bar
-Holding down the mouse over the application’s icon on the Dock and selecting Quit from the contextual menu that will pop up after a moment
These tricks will help your battery last even longer when you are not plugged in!
