How to healthy your Laptop Battery

[Gloster]

Mark Pearson (Lenovo) : "For battery charging thresholds I recently dug into that a bit and got the following guidance from the battery team:
– If you often discharge your battery to near eempty (< 20%) then start charging at 95% and stop at 100%
– If you frequently use the battery but don't fully discharge. Usage between 50% and 100% then start charging at 75% and stop at 80%
– If you always use an AC adapter and rarely use battery start charging at 45% and stop at 50%" (refer to https://pointieststick.com/2020/06/08/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-yoga-impressions-bugs-workaro...ut-the-future/)

I use the third case, but a presupposition will be by Mark Pearson, that 2 thresholds will be used to start charging at 45% and stop at 50%.
My system a Vivibook only does support one threshold :
# Charging stops when the battery level reaches or exceeds this threshold.
STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=50

and not :

# Charging starts once the battery level is below this threshold.
START_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=45

Also it must be known, if the battery is not in use (AC adapter always plugged), the battery itself will be discharged by "Self-discharging"
(refer to https://www.el-cell.com/what-is-the-self-discharge-rate-of-a-lithium-ion-battery/).

Furthermore I did install tlp Vers. 1.9 to get /etc/tlp.conf where all values can be set by predefined Constants (e.g.: STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt update
sudo apt install tlp tlp-pd tlp-rdw

I wrote a script to simulate the upper and lower threshold /home/richard/.local/bin/Toggle_45_50MaxLoad.sh :

#!/bin/bash

declare -i SetLowThresHold=1

# Konfiguration
#LogFile="/home/richard/battery_log.txt"
BatteryDir="/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0"

# get values
Capacity=$(cat ${BatteryDir}/capacity)
#Status=$(cat ${BatteryDir}/status)
#Time=$(date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")

echo $Capacity
#echo $Status
#echo $Time

if [ "$Capacity" -le 45 ]
then
SetLowThresHold=0
fi

while true; do

if [ "$SetLowThresHold" -eq 1 ]
then
#set lower threshold
sudo sed -ie 's/^#*STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=.*/STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=44/' /etc/tlp.conf
#new value will be read
sudo tlp start
while [ "$SetLowThresHold" -eq 1 ]; do
#write to log
Capacity=$(cat ${BatteryDir}/capacity)
#Status=$(cat ${BatteryDir}/status)
#Time=$(date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
#echo "${Time} - Battery Level: ${Capacity}% - Status: ${Status}" >> ${LogFile}
#echo $Capacity
if [ "$Capacity" -le 45 ]
then
SetLowThresHold=0
fi
sleep 20
done
#echo $SetLowThresHold
else
#set higher threshold
sudo sed -ie 's/^#*STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=.*/STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=51/' /etc/tlp.conf
#new value will be read
sudo tlp start
while [ "$SetLowThresHold" -eq 0 ]; do
#write to log
Capacity=$(cat ${BatteryDir}/capacity)
#Status=$(cat ${BatteryDir}/status)
#Time=$(date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
#echo "${Time} - Battery Level: ${Capacity}% - Status: ${Status}" >> ${LogFile}
#echo $Capacity
if [ "$Capacity" -ge 50 ]
then
SetLowThresHold=1
fi
sleep 20
done
#echo $SetLowThresHold
fi
done

It must be installed as service with root rights Accu_Threshold_45_50.service in /etc/systemd/system :

[Unit]
Description=Toggle 45% to 50% For Accu
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/bin/bash /home/richard/.local/bin/Toggle_45_50MaxLoad.sh
Restart=always
User=root

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target


After all the service must be started, checked and can be stopped if 100% capacity will be whished :

systemctl enable Accu_Threshold_45_50
systemctl is-enabled Accu_Threshold_45_50
systemctl disable Accu_Threshold_45_50
systemctl is-enabled Accu_Threshold_45_50

The script itself does only every 20sec a question, therefore no CPU load.

Since two years only I did use one threshold, max battery charge level 80%, I got the information by tlp Batterie analysis :
sudo tlp-stat -b

/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status = Not charging

/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_end_threshold = 44 [%]

Charge = 49.7 [%]
Capacity = 76.3 [%]

It is for linux systems, but if you have in mind, a Linux system does use only 40GB, 70GB would be enough to work with it. I am a Dual boot user, you will get also a complete Office system like 365.

[GAhere]

Rechargeable Lithium batteries are required to have BMS (Battery Monitoring System) that is already built into the battery and laptop, cell phone, tablet or any other device designed to use rechargeble Lithium batteries.

As such, the BMS already takes care of when to charge, how much to charge, how much discharge current along with temperature and voltages. As built, BMS systems typically will allow no more than 10%-90% charge/discharge range of the actual capacity of the cells.

Yes, that means your actual battery capacity is 20% more if there was no BMS.

All your program does is further limit the usable capacity which isn't going to increase battery life or capacity much if any and has the possibility of decreasing battery life..

As far as self discharge goes, Lithium batteries do have a very, very low self discharge rate on their own, however when built into a laptop or device the laptop or device will have "phantom" draws EVEN when the device is powered off, making it appear like the built in battery self-discharge rate is higher. This is combated easily by leaving said laptop or device plugged in when powered off and even when powered on, the laptop or device along with the BMS is designed to keep the battery charged to max specifications when the laptop or device is plugged in to commercial power.

Additionally, batteries are considered a "consumable" or "wear" item, they have a finite charge/discharge life, the more you charge/discharge them the faster they wear out.. On the flip side though they also deteriorate with age regardless of depth of charge/discharge life and the BMS chip can fail or fault out which is designed to automatically disconnect the battery cells from charging or discharging..

Third party aftermarket Lithium replacement batteries are readily available for most all laptops and other devices and are rather inexpensive compared to OEM and you have a pretty good chance that they will have just as long of a life as the OEM and sometimes higher Ahr/Whr capacity than OEM..

And yes, I have used aftermarket Lithium batteries in multiple laptops over the years with very good results, oldest one I have is going on at least 6 yrs old an still powers the laptop for the same amount of time when the aftermarket battery was installed.

[Gloster]

Mark Pearson : Mark Pearson is the Senior Linux Developer and Technical Lead / Linux Architect for the Lenovo PC Linux team.
TLP was developed primarily with Lenovo ThinkPads in mind.
...the tool contained exclusive hardware-specific hooks (like custom fan control and battery charge thresholds).
... Over the years, its compatibility has expanded to support almost all major laptop brands,
People like Mark Pearson I can trust, e.g. the introduction of 2 thresholds : START/STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0.
The max. number of charging cycles is given by the manufacturer : 500 - 1500.

With the use of two thresholds, the charging cycles will be drastically reduced.

See above Mark Pearson : "If you always use an AC adapter and rarely use battery start charging at 45% and stop at 50%"

Not charging for approximately 2-3 weeks is similar to :
"To store lithium-ion batteries safely and maintain their lifespan, ...
State of Charge (SoC) : Always store lithium-ion batteries partially charged. Keeping them at 40-60% puts the least stress on the internal cells.
The ideal storage temperature is between 10° C and 25° C."

[Gloster]

Additional Information : "To control the battery charging threshold on a laptop featuring the Microchip (formerly SMSC) MEC152x Embedded Controller (EC), you typically adjust the threshold using your laptop manufacturer's software, through the BIOS/UEFI, or by sending low-level ACPI/EC commands within your operating system."
...
3. Advanced OS-Level/EC Controls (Linux)In Linux, the MEC152x EC can sometimes be controlled directly by OS-level tools like TLP or via ACPI calls.TLP:
If your driver is supported, you can set the START_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0 and STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0 parameters in the /etc/tlp.conf file.
refer also to detailed description of the MEC152x : https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/MEC152x-Data-Sheet-DS00003427F.pdf

Further more : "Under optimal storage conditions (approximately 40–60% state of charge, cool temperatures around 10–20°C), a lithium-ion battery loses about 10% to 25% of its original capacity over six years due to calendar aging."

@GAhere : "And yes, I have used aftermarket Lithium batteries in multiple laptops over the years with very good results, oldest one I have is going on at least 6 yrs old an still powers the laptop for the same amount of time when the aftermarket battery was installed. "

[GAhere]

Mark Pearson : Mark Pearson is the Senior Linux Developer and Technical Lead / Linux Architect for the Lenovo PC Linux team.

Does Mark Pearson MAKE and or design the lithium batteries?

Does Lenovo make their own batteries?

The answer is no..

Lenovo just like all other PC manufacturers buy batteries premade for them by battery companies that do make, sell, integrate lithium batteries..

Therefore, take what Pearson and Lenovo say with a grain of salt..

On edit..

I should also mention, any programs that run on an operating system (Linux, Windows ect), do not and cannot run when the PC is shut down or in sleep/hibernation.

So, how can your program work when PC is turned off?

Answer.. It doesn't.

Your program would have to be able to modify the firmware and BIOS of the PC in order to work when PC is shut down which would be a terrifying bad thing, which has a pretty fair chance of bricking the PC.

If it makes you feel better to run your program, but reality is it isn't going to increase battery life.

[Gloster]

I must confess your reply is as not answerable as possible, and if you have any rest of honest, you will give up , and you will give the battery more live,

[Brazil]

Food for thought:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/your-battery-gauge-is-lying-to-you-and-its-not-such...-thing.871051/
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries

TL;DR: for lithium-ion batteries never under 30% and never over 80-85%.