How to extend the life of your laptop battery

Batteries don't last forever. Like everything except diamonds and viral tweets, they eventually wear out. But with proper care, a laptop battery can still carry a sufficient charge until you're ready to move on to a better laptop.

But it's a tradeoff. Taking the best care of your laptop battery just may be more of a hassle than it's worth.

So let me start with a less effective, but more practical approach:

When you're at home, running the laptop on AC power, and you believe that it will stay plugged in for a week or more, shut down the PC and remove the battery.

Then, when you need the battery, plug it back in. If it's been more than two months since you last used the battery, check it and charge it before taking it on the road.

Of course, you should never remove or insert a laptop battery while the laptop is running. Always shut it down first.

That's the practical approach. Here's the extreme care method:

For the absolute best results, never charge it past 80 percent or let it drop below 20 percent. When you're working on AC power, keep an eye on the battery's charging.  When it hits or passes 80 percent, shut down your computer, remove the battery, then reboot. When it's time to take the laptop on the road, shut it down again and reinsert the battery.

And when you're using the laptop on battery power, shut it down before the battery drops below 20 percent, and don't start it up again until you have AC power.

Source:http://www.pcworld.com/article/2690760/keep-your-laptop-battery-healthy.html 

Old laptop batteries could power slums, IBM says

Old laptop batteries could power slums, IBM says

Old laptop batteries still have enough life in them to power homes in slums, researchers have said.

An IBM study analysed a sample of discarded batteries and found 70% had enough power to keep an LED light on more than four hours a day for a year.

Researchers said using discarded batteries is cheaper than existing power options, and also helps deal with the mounting e-waste problem.

The concept was trialled in the Indian city of Bangalore this year.

The adapted power packs are expected to prove popular with street vendors, who are not on the electric grid, as well as poor families living in slums.

The research, which comes from IBM's India-based research team, will be discussed at a conference in San Jose, California, according to Technology Review from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cheap

The IBM team created what they called an UrJar - a device that uses lithium-ion cells from the old batteries to power low-energy DC devices, such as a light.

The researchers are aiming to help the approximately 400 million people in India who are off grid.

The UrJar uses lithium-ion cells from the old batteries to power low-energy DC devices

Options such as solar power are considerably more expensive and logistically more cumbersome at the moment.

If the UrJar, which would last a year, is made in sufficiently large volume, researchers estimate the price per unit at just 600 rupees (about £7).

They conclude: "UrJar has the potential to channel e-waste towards the alleviation of energy poverty, thus simultaneously providing a sustainable solution for both problems."

Feedback from the trial was positive, the team said. Among the improvements suggested by users was a call for rat-resistant wires.

Urgent

E-waste is a major problem, particularly in the developing world, where the majority of the West's unwanted technology ends up.

IBM's research said 142,000 computers are thrown away in the US daily - around 50 million a year.

India's predicament is particularly urgent. Not only does the country receive a lot of e-waste from other countries, but with a booming IT market it is also generating huge amounts of its own - around 32 tonnes a day, according to one estimate.

Computer Aid, a UK-based charity that redistributes unwanted old technology, welcomed the initiative.

"We think that this is an excellent initiative as it is in line with our practice of reusing and refurbishing rather than recycling," said Keith Sonnet, its chief executive.

"Refurbishing has definitely a more positive impact on the environment and we should encourage more companies to adopt this practice."