Battery Consumption and Efficiency

by Nathaniel Erickson

Submitted : Spring 2013

Being put to the test are three batteries which are used to operate three different portable devices. Each battery varies in size, determined by milliamp hours (mAh). Milliamp hours are the measurement of energy used over a period of time. In theory, a 1000mAh battery can power a device that uses 1000 milliamps for 1 hour, or 100 milliamps for 10 hours. The first device is the Galaxy Note 8.0 portable electronic tablet by Samsung. It is powered by a 4600mAh battery. The second is the Nexus 7 portable electronic tablet by Asus. It is powered by a smaller, 4325mAh battery. Finally, there is the Sony Vaio laptop. This device is powered by an even smaller, 3500mAh battery.

My goal was to determine how each of these devices utilizes its battery capacity and if indeed a larger battery provides a longer life. I made sure each battery had a full charge before performing the tests. Next, I played continuous media on each device for as long as each device could last. I kept each form of media consistent. I had four movies scheduled to play one after the other, in the same order. I observed and recorded the percent of battery remaining for each device at 30-minute intervals. Once the batteries got down to a critical level, I recorded exactly what time each device powered off. After performing the tests, I realized that it was not the device with the largest battery that lasted longest. I was able to conclude that there must be many other factors that must be accounted for when attempting to find the efficiency of a battery.

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