{"id":28685,"date":"2020-04-17T15:24:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T19:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=28685"},"modified":"2020-04-22T16:53:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:53:36","slug":"battery-health-management-for-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/17\/battery-health-management-for-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"Battery Health Management for Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple<\/a> (MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n

The battery health management feature in macOS 10.15.5 is designed to improve your battery’s lifespan by reducing the rate at which it chemically ages. The feature does this by monitoring your battery’s temperature history and its charging patterns.<\/p>

Based on the measurements that it collects, battery health management may reduce your battery’s maximum charge when in this mode. This happens as needed to ensure that your battery charges to a level that’s optimized for your usage—reducing wear on the battery, and slowing its chemical aging.<\/p>

While battery health management benefits your battery’s long-term lifespan, it can also reduce the amount of time your Mac runs on one battery charge when capacity limits are applied. If your priority is making your Mac notebook last as long as possible before recharging, you can turn the feature off<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

This seems like a good idea, although I don’t understand why Apple keeps making significant non-bug-fix changes in 0.0.1 updates.<\/p>\n\n

Dieter Bohn and Jacob Kastrenakes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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What that means for your laptop is that in certain cases, seeing 100 percent battery life in your menu bar may not necessarily mean it’s the maximum your battery could charge to. Instead of meaning that it’s charged to 100 percent of what the battery could take, it will now mean it’s charged to 100 percent of what the battery should<\/em> take to maximize it’s lifespan.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

They probably had to do it this way, because people wouldn’t like to stare at a battery gauge that doesn’t charge above 80%. However, this also means that some people who aren’t aware of the feature, or simply forgot to turn it off, may get on a plane without realizing their battery is only at 80%.<\/p>\n\n

Jason Snell<\/a> (tweet<\/a>, Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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Charging a modern laptop battery to 100% and leaving it there for extended periods of time—especially at warm temperatures—can dramatically reduce the battery’s usable life. This is hardly limited to laptops: I own an electric car, and the manufacturer makes it very clear that it should be routinely charged to only 80 percent to extend its battery lifespan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n