5 Laptop Energy-Saving Facts You Probably Don’t Know

Most people are aware of the basic laptop battery-saving techniques such as adjusting the LCD brightness to the lowest level possible, or closing all unused applications especially if they are media players. Anyone who practices battery frugality knows these and probably even more. But what many people do not know is that your laptop’s specifications also contribute to the battery’s inevitable battery loss. If you knew these rare facts, coupled with the battery-saving techniques you already know, you would be able to save a great deal of your laptop battery life the next time you travel. Below are the five relatively unknown energy-saving tips for your laptop.

Defragging regularly

The process of defragmentation is too lengthy to explain and a very technical one at that. But to give you a brief explanation, defragmentation is basically done to your computer’s disk drive to increase its speed and functionality. This means that the faster your hard drive does its work, there would be significantly less demand on energy. That said, it is important that you defrag your disk drive regularly in order to make your hard drive as efficient as possible.

Increase RAM to its fullest

Experienced laptop users notice that laptops with 2GB of RAM works significantly longer that a laptop with 1GB of RAM. Research has shown that laptops with more RAM allow you to process more with the memory the laptop has, rather than using virtual memory. Relying on virtual memory makes the hard drive use up huge amounts of energy, thereby quickly reducing battery power.

Avoid the CD/DVD drive

CD/DVD drives consume so much power when in use. They spin, taking too much battery power. And they still spin even when they’re not actively used. You can prevent this by using your computer’s hard drive rather than the CD/DVD drive. Simply copy the file from the CD and paste it on your hard drive. This may take a while depending on the size of the file, but you would rather wait a few minutes and be able to save a significant amount of battery life than suffer the consequences of using the energy-draining CD/DVD drive, wouldn’t you?

Keep battery contacts clean

Just as a dirty car engine produces much poorer fuel-burning efficiency, dirty laptop battery contacts provide less power and a quicker lifespan for your laptop. You need to keep the transfer of power from your battery to the laptop more efficient. You can do this by making sure to clean your battery’s metal contacts at least every two months with a cloth moistened with just the right amount of rubbing alcohol.

Use hibernate mode instead of standby

Standby mode is a great way to conserve battery power and you can resume where you left off with just one press of a button. However, many people do not know that a laptop’s hibernate function saves a lot more energy than standby mode does. Just like standby mode, hibernating your laptop will actually save the computer’s state as it is, and shut itself down, using absolutely zero power. In a standby mode, however, most laptops signify this mode by a blinking light in the laptop, thereby using a little bit of battery power. People are just so accustomed to the standby mode that they forget to realize that hibernate mode is much better and more power efficient. GP