Zixinus wrote:I strongly recommend that you read
this article.
Larger and heavier. If you want three times the capacity, you will need three times the batteries. That's what you get when you buy a bigger battery. That is how it worked for me. The more power charge you want to carry around ,the heavier it will be. If your batteries are already lithium-based then you are unlikely to get much better. Battery technology only goes so far no matter how much you are willing to spend.
Well, according to eBay, you can buy box-sized branded 12v batteries that have around 20Ah and weigh only 3 or 4 kilograms and cost around $200. This seems quite cost-effective and lightweight, great for charging a phone or laptop.
Second, why are you completely sure? Even if you keep consumption to a minimum, your laptop's design heavily influences how long it can last on a charge. The higher performance on your laptop, the more it will drain. For example, a high-performance graphics card is always going to cause greater drain. Same goes if there is an optical drive present. That's partially the idea behind netbooks and other ultraportables, that have very little base charge and thus last much longer on the same battery than a more traditional laptop.
So how is a smaller battery with less capacity going to be magically better because it's "designed for laptops"? Also, there are plenty of high-end GPUs that are actually more power-efficient than more less powerful, outdated models, so high-end doesn't always mean more power-hungry.
A big boxy battery will almost always have more power capacity than a much smaller battery made out of the
same materials and quality.
There is a chance that your laptop's manufactuere has made an ultra-high capacity version. Naturally, you should buy them from the manufacturer or from a licensed retailer. Then you'll be okay. Look up your laptop's model.
I really doubt it. It's an ultrabook-type thingy, no optical drive or anything so I doubt they would make a bigger version.
Short answer: internal batteries are designed to be light and portable. If your laptop lasts 3 hours, then you are multiplying that time with how many internal batteries. You are vastly overestimating the power of external power supplies and completely ignoring the fact that they are not portable.
Long answer: Okay, at this point I have to ask: how do you define "internal battery"? Because I define it as a battery your laptop or phone comes with, the one the laptop was designed to put together with. I define "external battery" as batteries as independent batteries that are not designed to be part of the device but can supply a suitable charge for them, such as powerbanks or
Uninterruptible power supplies.
But they are portable, they are used all the time in very portable and mobile applications. You can buy relatively lightweight 12v box batteries that weigh only 2-3 kilograms, less than the average PC chassis which is around 15 kilograms.
The main problem with external batteries is that they aren't designed to circumvent internal batteries, but to supplement them. The idea of a powerbank is to have a portable charge once your phone's charge is down. With an UPS, the main goal is to kick in if there is a power failure and allow a computer enough time to save its work then shut down properly to avoid damage to it. The next problem is the transfer of charge. There is resistance and loss of energy from charging from one battery to another (because that's what you are doing). There is also creation of heat, which is something you want to avoid.
I doubt there would be more heat from charging a laptop and a phone than constantly re-starting a slow-moving car in a traffic jam in 40C degree heat every few minutes and also powering the radio, fans, pumps, and all the other stuff. I am quite sure that there would actually be quite a bit less heat, especially since I live in a cool climate.
Also, plugging the laptop into the mains power is also losing energy from the transformer turning the AC mains power into 19.5v of DC power, which is one stage, the same as a battery. (Mains>>>DC>>>Laptop, as opposed to Battery>>>appropriate DC>>>Laptop, same thing mostly.)
Getting internal batteries that you charge when you don't use your laptop or smartphone (say, at night before you go to sleep, some manufacturers make internal battery charging stations) avoids this issue. Swapping internal batteries for laptops is easy. Trying to run your laptop off an external battery as if it were on the mains is inefficient because power still needs to be transformed from mains levels to your laptop's levels. And if you want batteries that are charged to your laptop's voltage, well, that is what its internal battery is for. The whole point of a laptop is to avoid needing an UPS in the first place. UPSs are not portable and are very, very heavy because they are lead-acid batteries.
A whole lot of unnecessary and convoluted nonsense when I could just get a single boxed battery capable of not only charging phones/laptops but also powering small fridges, fans, possibly starting small motorbikes depending on what type, etc.
Out of curiosity, what the hell are you doing that requires you so much external battery life? Are you planning on going on a safari or something?
No, I just want a laptop to be able to be walked from one side of the house to the other without losing 50% battery life. (exaggeration)
Second, where did you imagine you'd get better batteries for you laptop? That there is a network of semi-secret super-battery shops strewn across the globe and you wanted to know which one is closest?
Well when I look at the local battery stores, I can see dozens and dozens of superior external batteries literally coating the bloody shelves. It's not top secret that a external battery the size of a rockmelon will probably be better than a tiny, thin battery pack designed move some electrons around some wires and power a small light bulb., as long as they're roughly the same quality.
Third, this is why I told you to buy batteries from a reputable webshop with working guarantees and located within your country. People that actually will stand by the quality of what they sell, even if it heavily influences the price (the safety you get from such service is actually what you are buying). There are businesses that actually specialize in this. If they exist in Hungary, they surely must exist in the USA or wherever you are.
Meh, the sales quality of major brands like ASUS, Gigabyte, Samsung and others is supposed to be pretty shocking, apparently most of the time they will not even honour their warranty. I doubt they would be any better than a unknown seller.
Here is a reality: The more densely you pack energy, such as electric charge, the more unstable it is. The higher capacity a battery is, the greater the issue. Lithium batteries have internal circuits to prevent problems.
That said, modern batteries have as much power they have that can be safely stored. The infamous Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones (whose negative effects are greatly exaggerated for humor) are the rare exception rather than the rule.
Well, there are plenty of reports on forums and Daily mail sites where people buy some 50 cent batteries off eBay and they catch fire or explode when used. And I doubt there are any legitimate laptop battery stores that sell the exact fitting battery in Australia. Also, what if their stock is actually just unbranded generic garbage? I doubt many people actually buy new batteries for their laptops, so it's not like anyone will actually notice except for the odd report in the daily mail.
If you don't buy stuff from Alibaba or aliexpress or ebay but from reputable shops that provide real guarantees, your batteries are not going to explode. At worst, they might start a fire if they are improperly stored or used. This means leaving them exposed to the sun, heating them, using improper chargers, etc. However, nobody is going to confuse your spare batteries as IEDs unless you are acting deeply suspicious.
So they will catch fire if they are heated? Well there is no chance then, as they will apparently burst into flame as soon as they're plugged in, because discharging/charging them will cause them to generate heat.
On a serious note, what sort of proper heavy-duty battery would catch fire if you left it in the sun or it generated a little teeny bit of heat? Aren't most batteries usually left in a heated environment outdoors? I guess leaving them outside for an extended time would definitely be bad, but a little bit of sunlight shouldn't do anything, unless of course, they actually are the dodgy batteries from alibaba.
Yes and I actually handled such and they are very heavy because they are lead-acid batteries that are not meant to be portable. I actually have one on-hand because of work and they weight more than my whole laptop. They are designed to be stationary and for being in an UPS.
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How heavy? According to some descriptions on eBay and battery shops in Australia, they weigh only about 2 kilograms on average, or 5 kilograms at the most, wwhich is quite lightweight and could easily be taken around the place.