Battery Care

Battery care aims to extend the lifespan of the battery by reducing wear and capacity loss resulting from ongoing operation. This can be achieved by:

  1. Limiting the maximum charge level to below 100% (stop charge threshold)

  2. Preventing the charging process from continuing as soon as the charger is connected after a short discharge (start charge threshold)

  3. Recalibration helps keep the charge level readings and battery runtime estimates accurate by setting new “full charge” and “full discharge” anchors in the battery controller.

Battery care does not involve additional power saving.

Important

  • The availability of battery care, all of its individual features and the possible charge threshold values always depend on laptop vendor or brand, Linux kernel version and TLP version - consult Battery Care Vendor Specifics for details.

  • For further advice please visit the FAQ: Battery Care.

START/STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BATx

START_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=75
STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=80

START_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT1=75
STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT1=80

Set battery charge thresholds for main and secondary battery:

  • Start charge threshold (START_CHARGE_THRESH_BATx): battery charge level below which charging will begin when connecting the charger.

  • Stop charge threshold (STOP_CHARGE_TRESH_BATx): battery charge level above which charging will stop while the charger is connected.

Keep in mind that the names of the batteries shown by tlp-stat -b don’t have to match the _BAT0 or _BAT1 parameter qualifiers. Please refer to Battery Care Vendor Specifics to see which qualifier applies to which battery.

Thresholds always go with a lower usable battery capacity, therefore the settings are disabled by default and must be enabled explicitly by removing the leading #.

Important

You must always specify both charge thresholds - start and stop - for a battery, otherwise TLP will reject both thresholds. If you want to apply only one threshold (or your hardware does support only one), then use the dummy value 0 to skip the other one.

See also

RESTORE_THRESHOLDS_ON_BAT

RESTORE_THRESHOLDS_ON_BAT=1

Restore configured charge thresholds when AC is unplugged:

  • 0 – disable

  • 1 – enable

Default when unconfigured: 0

Hint: after the commands tlp fullcharge/recalibrate the charge thresholds will stay at the vendor specific defaults until the next reboot. Use this feature to restore them prematurely.

NATACPI/TPSMAPI_ENABLE

NATACPI_ENABLE=1
TPSMAPI_ENABLE=1

Control battery care drivers:

  • 0 – disable

  • 1 – enable

Default when unconfigured: 1 (all)

Scope:

  • NATACPI: all supported laptops

  • TPSMAPI_ENABLE: ThinkPad specific

See also