Increase Battery Life for Electronics

This instructable will tell you how to increase the life of electronics without the need to buy batteries that are expensive and designed to last long.

These are ideas that I am making up as I write this instructable. Please correct me on anything that, well, needs correcting! This is only my second instructable, so I would like any advice on improvements (my first and second instructables were whack and they didn't really even work, cause I didn't test it until after i wrote the instructables, and I abandoned them due to huge flaws). This one will be much better, I hope. Besides, I'm only 13 years old, so I sometimes make very odd creations that never work. :)

Please suggest information for me to add to this Instructable if you believe there is one you think is good. I will select good ones and I will add them to this Instructable.

ADDED:
Using Rechargeables: Several commenters suggested the idea of using rechargeable batteries because usage over time just saves waste and will be cheaper overall to use these over time. So I think rechargeable batteries are the way to go. Read more in the Going Green Section.

JUST A MESSAGE: Wow, I wrote this instructable on August 19th. I was planning on entering it in the Burning questions contest, but I missed the cutoff date by 2 days. After I finished, my computer's power supply failed, so I needed to get a replacement and ordered one. I continued about an hour later with a different computer and when I was going to enter it, I noticed I missed the cutoff date..... For Burning Questions Round 6, there should be one on "How to get good luck", because mine sometimes stinks really badly. Oh well, please take a look at my Instructable and see if anything is here that can help you. I may have missed the contest, but I still had the fun of making an Instructable!!!!!

Step 1: Media Players (like iPod, Zune, and other) and Pocket PCs (non-cellular)

Well, the first thing to do that can increase battery life for iPods, Zunes, and other ones with the LCD screens like those, is to lower the brightness, when not necessary. For example, you do not need to set the brightness to 100% in a dark room. Lower the brightness so that you can still see the screen without strain. Mine is set to 30%, while they usually ship with 50%.

Another option also has to do with the screen. Set the amount of time that the screen stays on to a shorter time. Personally, I don't think anyone should need to have the backlight stay on for more than 10 seconds after you stop interfacing with it. My iPod is set to 2 seconds.

For the iPod Touch, turn off the WiFi when not in use.

I'm pretty sure the same principles apply to Zunes and other players. I don't have them, so I can't really show anything.

Note: The pictures suck because, well, the iPod Nano's screen is very VERY small.

Comments

[instructamaker]

You could repost the ible later and take screenshots instead of pictures.
To take a screenshot on apple devices press the power button and the home button at the same time.

[FrozenFire]

Another powersaver is the joule thief, a device that gets the last bits of juice (down to 0.35V) out of a battery to light a LED for weeks from a 'dead' battery. You can even recharge other batteries with it!

[max1zzz]

 charge dead rechargeable batteries  or they will die completely 

[hansonsux]

Alkaline produces 1.5v open circuit when new but has higher internal resistance.  NiMh or NiCad has very low internal resistance.  This means even through your new 1.5v battery when it sees a load will drop to a certain point.  The volt drop goes to heating up the battery itself, and not running the load.  Then Alkaline's open circuit  voltage drops gradually as it is discharged as well.  While NiMh and NiCad stay at 1.2 most of the time, then drop when only less than 1 percent capacity is remaining.

The capacity of Alkaline varies greatly depending on load.  An ideal very low drain Alkaline has about 3000mah.  At high drain, you might see only 600mah.  The rest of the capacity goes to warming the batteries themselves.   NiMh and NiCad has very low internal resistance, so that you don't see a big capacity variation in typical loads found in normal use.

[11010010110]

Few more things to test out : When reception is restricted (like in concrete buildings) phone may use more power for transmission. Using and keeping it near the window and / or with the antenna pulled out may enhance battery Screen contrast may affect battery Screen backlight color may affect battery (different efficiency of different color LEDs) All whats applicable for notebook computers is applicable here too Most important : Enjoy life not the phone ! Second hand Nokia 5110 owner. Charging once in 1.5 weeks

[thinkdunson]

you're right about reception... when it's constantly looking for a signal, it's using more power. but the contrast and color of the screen does not affect power usage. the backlight doesn't change color, the screen does. the only way to save energy with the backlight is to simply decrease brightness when you don't need as much. and the screen is not LEDs, it's an LCD. it will use the same amount of juice no matter what color or contrast it is.

[11010010110]

the backlight of the screen is LEDs. there are phones with black and white screen and colored backlight which can be changed in the settings

[thinkdunson]

the backlight isn't always led's. led backlights in laptops is just starting to emerge. besides, how do you know it isn't a filter? and if it is led's, i bet that the color is from a combination of different colored led's... meaning, even if you chose red (the lowest frequency and therefore the lowest power usage), it wouldn't be simply red... it would be a combination of led's making a red color, because it would be nearly impossible to see the screen with a normal red led. i just don't think it's very likely at all. if this was the case, then the difference in battery life would be enormous by switching to a red screen. most led colors use more than twice as much power as red.

[11010010110]

it'd be the other way then - that blue is the most efficient blue led voltage is higher so it needs less current (smaller resistor) to get the same power the current determines how fast the battery is drained (i saw leds in phones cnnected between resistor and ground each so i assume this is the way they are. if they are PWMed in newer phones then the current thing does not apply) are there any phones with backlight other than leds ? whats used in them ?

[andreblue]

some are long lube ones like in stores

[sijmenjan]

The backlight is always white. Black and other colors are made with covering the lights

[CeyloniteSoldier]

LEDs have never been widely used in cell phone screens. The screens, being LCDs, generally use fluorescent lamps as backlights. LCD screens with LED backlights are possible and have been done, but they are expensive and very far from being perfected. Also, higher voltage components require a higher current to operate.

[thinkdunson]

this really isn't the place for this discussion. if you have a colored backlight, try changing the colors and see if it helps. good luck.

[LemonSlice]

I've never heard that before, but that's an interesting idea, and with 1.5 weeks of battery life, it seems that all this helps. And yes, we'll enjoy life. :)

[thygreatone]

Has no one else come across the chargers that can recharge regular disposable alkalines? I have one, and it can be set to charge nicads, NiMhs or disposable alkalines. It works great. You can usually only get 10 or 15 charge cycles out of a disposable alkaline, but for low draw devices its great. If you get 6 months out of the batteries in a remote now you can get 60 months out of the same batteries. Seems like a damn fine idea to me.

[andreblue]

regular ones cant be recharged on the one that say can like pure energy ones i have are alkaline but disposable will explode if  u try cause they are not made to recharge.

[sijmenjan]

I want one too. What's the name of it?

[abadfart]

i had one but it got lost in a move

[bears0]

 i used seven 9vs and i could almost weld with them

[Wasagi]

 This is a really good instructable! Good job!

[Phil B]

When our kids were young and had battery toys I sometimes bought a battery holder from Radio Shack. Used AA batteries were often no longer useful when each had gone down to 1 volt. But, I could gang three of them together in series with a battery holder and they would do the work of fresh 2 AA batteries, at least for a while. I might have to make a shunt from a dowel rod with a piece of copper wire to reach around both ends.

[LemonSlice]

You know, that makes me think of a great idea. Why not use the low batteries that don't work for high current devices and use them on devices when a little current doesn't matter. That would probably work for small projects. In fact, the low voltage may actually be good for when LEDs are in use.

[Phil B]

Back in the 1970s I acquired a calculator clock. It was very cutting edge at the time. It also used a couple of expensive watch batteries. I made a walnut holder for it so it can sit on my desk. Under the walnut holder I placed a battery holder for 4 AA batteries. When the AA's in my audio player were too depleted for the player I put three of them in the calculator clock battery holder with a shunt. Allegedly dead batteries will power the calculator clock for about one year.

[LemonSlice]

Now that is a good idea. Since the clock uses so little power, it can use up all that little power in the battery. That way, you aren't wasting the power in the battery that you paid for.

[sijmenjan]

I always charge NiMHs with the little current

[SuperAlex]

I have to agree with ThinkDunson on the application of Alkaline. My points of reference are 1] a portable Cd player that fails to perform correctly on Nicads. 2] An early digital camera that used 4 AA's and would take only 10 pictures on Alkaline, but was ok on Nicads. 3] Model Aero flying, powering that servo he mentioned. Keeping 12 nicads fully charged before going flying was a complete chore and with a cheap charger that one is likely to buy, prone to overcharging them. That shortened their life, exacascerbating the problem. Plug your laptop in for a full charge. Leave it for a week unplugged and switched off. Will you be surprised when it reports your battery is less than fully charged? Practical experience with Nicads and NiHi cells shows they don't hold their charge over long time. They may when they are new, but this deteriates. Would I want to power my smoke alarm, my remote control with them? Not unless I wanted to keep on my toes with recharging them, and it would be a real chore to have to wait 18 hours for them to recharge before I could change channel on my tv. That focuses on the one singular point that ThinkDunson makes, its their convenience for low power applications or occasional use.

[sijmenjan]

Maybe you can buy 4 AA's, 2 for powering your remote control and 2 to replace the other 2 when they are empty

[lilpepsikraker]

You spend $80 dollars a year on disposal batteries every year,

Redundant.

[tommylovesjamie]

the PC Decrapifier (seriously, that is its name) is a great tool for getting rid of the junk that runs in the background. I don't have the link to it right now because I am using a friend's computer (I fried mine with a cup of tea), but you should be able to find the tool through a quick internet search. Last I checked, it was still free.

[jacob5680]

ah.. the dreadfull cup of tea, i nearly fried mine with a Glass of Iced tea, but luckily i hit the power switch and got a tower REALLY quick. =)

[Noodle god]

I need to freaking recycle my batterys I have over 10 kilo's of dead disposables!

[jphphotography]

It should be noted to be careful when tossing batteries in a bulk bin like this, for axial style (ie cylinder with two ends) this should be okay because the ends will most likely not be shorted together. However for 9V batteries or lantern batteries it may be a good idea to put some tape or something over the terminals so that they can't short out. Even if a battery is low there is a chance of fire if you short the terminals together. All in all a pretty good tutorial, I already do most of this stuff already but I hadn't thought of emptying the cd tray on my laptop if its not in use.

[LemonSlice]

That is a good point for the 9V and lantern batteries. You should use some kind of cover for it or at least put in some bag.

[tommylovesjamie]

It is a pretty good point. What I like about the lantern batteries is that they usually come with covers over the leads anyway, so you could just save those and tape them down when you recycle them.

[tommylovesjamie]

Newer phones don't usually have this issue, but an interesting thing that a lot of people don't know about is that if their phone goes into analog signal reception, it drains the battery life tremendously. This is because the phone is constantly sending and receiving instead of sending in pulses of on and off. That said, if your phone has the option, it would be wise to shut off the analog reception capability. I did this for my LG phone when I was doing my pre-mobilization train-up, and I found that a lot of places where my phone was switching to analog still had a digital signal, so I was able to continue talking instead of losing the call and battery life in those areas.

[tommylovesjamie]

another option (which many people don't even realise works) is to turn down the volume some. I have a cheap little mp3 player from Germany, and it is battery powered (not even a rechargeable device). I noticed that if I put louder headphones in and turned down the volume about 50% that the battery life increased about 33%. That is a fairly decent increase if you have higher quality batteries (the cheap batteries I use don't make things any easier).

[cormac3050]

Another 2 things you might want to add, remove any unused laptop attchments, i.e. joysticks,empty usb hubs, ipods that are fully charged... any thing you have plugged into your laptop uses some power.And also, don't overcharge batteries. e.g.When your laptop or phone or whatever is fully charged, unplug it. Overcharging batteries can actually reduce the life of them. Also, very good instructable, 5/5 and faved.

[Enter 77]

With the cell phone part, another useful measure with 3g phones is to turn switch it back to GSM only. Or if u really need video calling or whatever just put it on duel mode. Even that can improve battery life. I have a nokia 6500 slide and by default it was on UMTS only. The first thing i did after getting it out of the box and charging it was to put it on GSM only. The 3g is more power intensive. I usually get just over a day of power when using it for a music player etc with UMTS only, but on GSM only it more than doubled its battery life

[Turaco]

Great tutorial. You're only thirteen? Keep up the good work. Great idea about using the residual power in batteries for low power consuming electronics. That was one I hadn't though of before. Thanks.

[LemonSlice]

Thanks for the comment. I actually thought of that idea because, for my science fair, I couldn't find any batteries to use, and I dug up a few old ones in my room and I tried those in my camera. At first, they didn't work in my old digital camera (AA batteries) so I thought they were dead. I put them in this container, originally intended for the recycling bins. I accidentally used some of those batteries for my project and they worked (just to run some LEDs). After the fair, I realized they were the old used ones. That's why I added that little bit to this section, because it is a good way to make use of the little power.