Laptop battery as UPS

Hi.

I don't really know which forum is the right one for this topic. Hope it's not much off topic here.

Thing is that I have a new Acer Aspire 8930G. Yesterday the power went off at the neighbourhood for three times. My desktop computer went through them unharmed, as I have it connected to an UPS which gives me around 15 minutes of power supply. Enough to save my HDDs from a sudden stop.

The first time the power went off I had my 8930G connected to the bare power, and I feared for the two HDDs it has. Next two times it was connected to the UPS, so no worries.

Now I live in another city in work days and I don't have my UPS here. I though that the battery might act as a replacement for it. I know it won't be too healthy for the battery itself, but I hardly ever would use the laptop with the battery alone (won't move it too much, as it's a 18.4" monster).

So, should I plug the battery or will it be ruined in a few weeks? Can I expect it to last at least 5 minutes in a couple of years of everyday usage when connected to the power supply?

 

Batteries take well over a year in most cases to show significant loss of capacity. Unless you throw it in a fire, there's no way in hell you're going to ruin your battery in weeks by doing what you're meant to do with it: using it.

And yes, if the battery is in the system when the power cuts out, the system will just start drawing power from the battery, like a UPS.

 

The battery will age whatever you do (a little slower if stored correctly) so stick it in your Acer and use it. The battery in my dv7 has lost 2% capacity in the 3 months i have had it so in 3 years if the capacity loss is linear i should still have at least 75% capacity left.

 

But I meant using the battery WHILE the laptop is connected to the power supply on a day to day basis. Is that still OK?

 

I can only speak for my 2 laptops and both of them has no problems running on the psu on a daily basis with the battery inserted.

- My 2 year old HP 6510b (that now belongs to my gf) still gives 3 hours battery time while watching movies

- My 3 month old HP DV7 has lost 2% capacity (i calibrated the battery yesterday)

Unless your laptop is unusually hot in the battery area there should be no problems. Try running with the battery inserted for 2 months then calibrate and see how much capacity you lost with hwmonitor or some other utility.

 

yeah thats fine

 

I've done that everyday for over a year and a half now. It's still good. Overall cell capacity is still in the 90+% range.

 

Nice. I'll stick their batteries on my two Acers. Thank you guys.