The real fact about your Lithium-ion battery life and death

Nowadays, Lithium-ion battery is commonly used to power up electronic gadgets including laptop, netbook, tablet PC, mobile phone, cordless phone, digital camera, GPS navigator, PDA, MP3 player, etc.

There are quite a lot of information in the Internet teaching you how to prolong the lifespan of your Lithium-ion battery, but not all of them are true. Some are even misleading and ridiculous.

The information below is summarized from 2 websites, namely:

1. batteryuniversity.com
2. howstuffworks.com

which I believe to be more reliable source to learn about the real fact of your Lithium-ion battery life and death.

Here we go:

• Lithium-ion batteries age. They start degrading as soon as they leave the factory. They will only last 2-3 years from the date of manufacture whether you use them or not. You should fully make use of your Lithium-ion battery, because it will still die off even if you store it aside and not using it for long time.
• Lithium-ion batteries are good in holding charge. A lithium-ion battery pack loses only about 5% of its charge per month when not in use. (Compared to 20% loss per month for NiMH batteries)
• Lithium-ion batteries have no memory effect. You don't have to completely discharge them before recharging.
• If you completely discharge a lithium-ion battery, you can no longer recharge it. It is ruined. However, the battery has electronic mechanism to prevent it from complete discharge by stop working when the voltage is too low. A fully discharged battery left for a long period of time will lose its charging capacity.
• Lithium-ion batteries can handle hundreds of charge/discharge cycles. Don't worry about recharging it often.
• Lithium ion chemistry prefers partial discharge to deep discharge. Your battery can have longer life if you charge it often rather than charging it after deep discharge.
• Lithium-ion batteries can have as much as 4,700 discharge cycles if you recharge it at every 10% drop in capacity; 2,500 discharge cycles if you wait until 25% drop; 1,500 discharge cycles if you wait until 50% drop; and only 500 discharge cycles for 100% full recharge.
• Avoid leaving them in high temperature, such as in a car parked at sunny outdoor. Heat causes lithium-ion batteries to degrade much faster than they normally would. Keep your battery below 30°C (86°F). Extremely high temperature might also cause battery explosion.
• When stored in 0°C, Lithium-ion batteries suffer about 6% permanent capacity loss in 1 year. At 25°C, they suffer about 20% permanent capacity loss in 1 year. At 40°C, they suffer about 35% permanent capacity loss in 1 year. At 60°C, they suffer about 40% permanent capacity loss in 3 months.
• Normally, there is built-in mechanism to prevent Lithium-ion batteries from overcharging, so you don't have to worry about battery degrade due to overcharging. However, if such mechanism failed, overcharging might cause excessive heat generated, which is harmful to the battery's lifespan.
• Most lithium-ion batteries cannot exceed 4.20V/cell. While a higher voltage would boost up the battery's capacity, over-voltage shortens its life.
• High charge levels and elevated temperatures hasten permanent battery capacity loss. This is the reason why some people prefers to remove the battery from laptop when it is on A/C power (so that the battery will not be always fully charged, and expose to the heat generated by the laptop). 
• Storing the battery at 40%-60% state-of-charge instead of fully charged can prolong its life.
• Avoid ultra-fast charging and discharging. If the charger allows, lower the charge voltage limit to prolong battery life. In this case, sometimes charging the electronic gadget by connecting it to a computer's USB port is more preferable than charging it with wall socket charger.

Family outdoor activity at Janda Baik, Pahang

My family with some 20 families altogether, have brought our kids who live in urban city to a small village called Janda Baik (coordinates: 3°19'42.94"N, 101°51'43.29"E) in Pahang for a 2-days-1-night parenting activity organized by the Family Learning Centre (亲子学苑) of the United Chinese School Teachers' Association Of Malaysia (教总).

This is a wonderful experience, as most of the organized camping activities only involve the kids, but this camping invites both the parents and children to experience the nature together.

The journey started by visiting to a waterfall. At first, we entered into the jungle following a smooth lane.

What a nice jungle walk where we can see and try to identify the different kinds of leaves, flowers, plants, insects and small animals. We are also able to see some of the buildings of Genting Highlands from far.

Soon, the journey became more and more challenging as we entered the untreated lane.

We needed to climb through relatively steep sloves, walking through slippery mud and crossing through waterlogging, before we finally reached the waterfall.

When I reached the waterfall, I found a bloody leech on my leg. Ouch!

We spent most of our time in a platform of New Era Organic Farm, located quite some distance away from the waterfall. This wooden pyramid-shape platform is the place where we eat, play and sleep.

There is a small river near the New Era Organic Farm. Its water is clean, fresh and chilling cool. The children like it very much.

Entering the organic farm all bare footedly, the children also learned to do farming in the farm.

We had camp fire and BBQ at night. No animal was harmed. We only grilled sweet corns in the BBQ.

The trip ended next day with horse feeding in a nearby small horse farm.

This is a nice outdoor activity for our children to get close to nature, and for us to relax ourselves, break away temporary from busy urban living.

The top 10 in Interbrand Best Global Brands 2011

Interbrand, a leading brand consultancy, has just released their 12th annual Best Global Brands Report.

This annual valuation report has been voted as one of the most influential benchmark studies by business leaders. It provides insights into the yearly performances of the world's Top 100 brands.

Interbrand ranks the brands by Brand Value, which is calculated based on the formula below.

Due to the volatile markets and uncertain business climate that characterized 2011, brands are in the midst of adapting to a new reality.

"Uncertainty is the new status quo, so today’s brands need to be quick and nimble," remarked Jez Frampton, Interbrand’s Global Chief Executive Officer. "Consistency, relevance and commitment are imperative if a brand is to keep pace in our rapidly changing world."

The top 10 brands in 2011 are:

• Coca-cola
• IBM
• Microsoft
• Google
• GE
• McDonald's
• Intel
• Apple
• Disney
• Hewlett-Packard

The chart below shows the change in Brand Value of these top 10 over the years. Google and Apple are both progressing fast.

Click here to download the full Best Global Brands 2011 Report for free. There is also an iPad version of the report available in iTunes Store.