Battery care SP3 / Power management

[malberttoo]

Is there a setting on the SP3 / Windows 8.1 where i can make it so it will only charge the battery up to a chosen percentage, for example up to 80 percent, so it stops charging when the battery is 80 percent full instead of the normal 100 percent?

Not that I've seen. ThinkPads do it, but that is a special power manager app created by Lenovo for their devices.

 

[IrekJanek]

A cycle = any time you plug it in. My experience with cell phones and laptops is that the battery tends to hold charges better, (lasts longer) if you minimize the cycles. Some times that just isn't convenient but to use my primary cell phone as an example, after 2 years I get just about the same battery life as the first day only charging once in 24 hours. That doesn't work for everyone. I try to go to 30% or less before charging, when it's convenient.

In reality you may be ready to get a new unit before the battery gets that bad anyway.

For Lithium-Ion battery a charge cycle is 0% to 100% = 1 charging cycle. If you charge the battery from 40% to 90% then one charging cycle is 2 x ( 40% to 90%). General guidelines for Lithium batteries is to keep them at 40% to 80% as much as possible, life span degradation is the fastest at the capacity extremes, with the lower end being the worst of them because discharging at the low capacity generates more heat. The battery used for Surface Pro 3 is a good quality (I believe it is LG) and to the best of my knowledge it is rated at 1000 charge cycles. That means that after 1000 charge cycles its capacity will be reduced to about 80% of its original capacity. One last note: You should discharge to 0% and charge it full every 30 to 50 days for capacity calibration purposes, it is used by the power management system.