[ltp] Re: [ANN] tp_smapi - a new Linux SMAPI driver

[George Katsitadze]

On Wed, Dec 07, 2005 at 08:41:08AM -0500, Jiang Qian wrote:
> Slightly off topic, George, I think even though you can keep battery in 
> the computer half charged with inhibit charge, the heat from putting 
> battery in computer when on AC is damaging to battery irretrievably.
> See the table at
> http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm
> so it is still recommended, if you want to prolong battery time, to 
> take battery out and store it in room temperature or lower. It's also a 
> good idea to keep monitoring battery temperature with ibm-acpi modules. 
> I do it in real-time with gkrellm.
> Jiang

Thanks for pointing that out, Jiang.  I ran some stress
tests and, using ibm_acpi my temperature readings don't go
above 29 and 25 degrees (there are two of them, according to
ibm-acpi README). I can live with that since it's only about
two percent more loss of capacity over a period of one year
compared to storing it at 0 degrees (at 40% charge level, of
course).  And I wouldn't store the battery in a refrigerator
anyway :).

But of course the readings might be different on a hot
summer day. I'll see.

Now, there is a very compelling reason for me to keep the
battery in the laptop.  I've heard claims that battery can
act as a big capacitor, providing some protection against
bad quality power, to the extent that no UPS is required
while the battery is alive.

Regards,
George