Closing Conclusion
Given the sources and explanations under. I’m formally going to do the next to optimize my battery life:
- Maintain my battery as cool as attainable.
- Don’t fret about whether or not it is plugged in or not. When it doubt, preserve it plugged in so it makes use of AC energy as an alternative of battery, until getting scorching.
It seems that the 2 strategies I initially posited are largely moot. The one factor that actually issues is temperature.
“Temperature was essentially the most important issue contributing to the cell degradation, with state-of-charge (SOC) and discharge pulse size of secondary significance.” (Liaw et al.2)
Moreover, it seems that the decay might be precisely mathematically modeled:
(See Ramadass et al.1 for rationalization of phrases)
Nevertheless, the dominant mannequin is that of the Arrhenius method, which generically predicts time-to-failure as a operate of temperature.
The determine under reveals the capability at numerous cycle counts. Simply have a look at the capability on the x-axis. The highest graph is at 25ºC, the underside at 50ºC.
After 600 cycles, the cooler battery had ~2x the capability
Whereas I may nonetheless discover no proof on the habits of Mac energy circuitry, there was useful data on the official Dell web site. Two gadgets particularly stood out.
Q. When docked or AC adapter is plugged right into a wall outlet, am I utilizing my battery cost?
A. No.
Q. Ought to I completely discharge, then recharge my Dell laptop computer battery often to make it last more?
A. No, discharging and charging doesn’t enhance the lifetime of a Lithium Ion know-how battery.
Nevertheless You will need to observe that Apple and Dell charging circuits could also be completely different. Though, provided that Dell does this, I assume apple does as properly. On this assumption, until somebody can present sources to assert in any other case, I’ll assume that the Apple charging circuitry is wise sufficient to know this.
I encourage anybody to proceed exploring this query and problem my assumptions. Please see the sources under for those who’re curious for a extra detailed rationalization.
Sources
1 Ramadass, P., Bala Haran, Ralph White, and Branko Popov. “Mathematical Modeling of the Capability Fade of Li-ion Cells.” Journal of Energy Sources 123.2 (2003): 230-40. Net. http://www.che.sc.edu/school/popov/drbnp/WebSite/Publications_PDFs/Web33.pdf.
2 Liaw, B., R. Jungst, G. Nagasubramanian, H. Case, and D. Doughty. “Modeling Capability Fade in Lithium-ion Cells.” Journal of Energy Sources 140.1 (2005): 157-61. Net. http://electrochem.org/dl/ma/204/pdfs/0253.PDF.
[3] Ning, G. “Capability Fade Research of Lithium-ion Batteries Cycled at Excessive Discharge Charges.” Journal of Energy Sources 117.1-2 (2003): 160-69. Net. http://www.che.sc.edu/school/popov/drbnp/web site/Publications_PDFs/Web38.pdf.
[4] Ramadass, P., Bala Haran, Parthasarathy M. Gomadam, Ralph White, and Branko N. Popov. “Improvement of First Ideas Capability Fade Mannequin for Li-Ion Cells.” Journal of The Electrochemical Society 151.2 (2004): A196. Net. http://www.che.sc.edu/school/popov/Publications/Premanand1.pdf
[5] Zhang, D., B. S. Haran, A. Durairajan, R. W. White, Y. Podrazhansky, and B. N. Popov. “Research on Capability Fade of Lithium-ion Batteries.” Journal of Energy Sources 91 (2000): 122-29. Net. http://www.che.sc.edu/school/white/2000studiesoncapcaityfadeofzhangharandurairajanwhitepodrazhanshkypopov.pdf.