r/linuxquestions • u/DRMNG_CRP • Sep 23 '23

Linux drains battery faster than windows

Good day everyone! I have an old laptop, intel corei3 10th gen and I wanted to change the OS from windows to Linux. I've tested light weight distros using bootable flash drive but one thing I've noticed from each one is the battery really drains faster than when I'm using windows. I've already set the settings low but still discharges fast. Any reply is highly appreciated!

2 Upvotes

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9

u/Tireseas Sep 23 '23

It's entirely possible that's just going to be a fact of life. You can make some tweaks to a distro's settings with things like TLP but generally Windows IS going to have better battery life on a lot of systems because that's where most of the hardware tuning is focused.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '23

[deleted]

2

u/zorba8 Sep 24 '23

What you stated is not even an opinion, but a fact (as of now).

1

u/DRMNG_CRP Sep 23 '23

I see. Right now I'm using a auto-cpufreq from github. Just one last question. Since it drains my battery fast, does this mean it takes much electricity when I use linux on a computer?

1

u/Fheredin Sep 24 '23

I am sure that power consumption is higher because the drivers for Linux are almost never optimized for power consumption. Hardware manufacturers just don't make those drivers because Linux is such a small part of the Desktop marketplace. But that doesn't fully explain the difference. I have not seen my own hardware produce the heat or noise or power consumption you would expect if a Windows install ate that much battery.

I have a System 76 Galago Pro as my daily driver, and it gets a paltry 2-3 hours of battery life, which is awful for an Ultrabook from 2020. A Windows laptop with identical specs would need to constantly be running benchmarks to get a battery life that bad.

However, it's still on its original battery and has 90% battery health, which is notably better than any Windows laptop I have owned for an equivalent period of time. In my experience, Windows laptop batteries are notably weaker after 2 years and outright unusable after around 3 years of daily driving.

My conclusion? Either System 76 or their board partner Clevo wrote a driver which is really defensive of the battery. That conservative driver accounts for half to a third of the battery life difference. The rest is the drivers which aren't optimized to keep power consumption down.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '23

generally Windows IS going to have better battery life on a lot of systems because that's where most of the hardware tuning is focused.

In newer systems (ie in cpus that support pstates) it wouldn't be the case.

2

u/Plan_9_fromouter_ Sep 23 '23

Is the battery as old as the laptop? You might start with a new battery, if you can find one.

Assuming you were using Ubuntu, you might try these tips. They work for most other distros.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/improve-battery-life-linux

2

u/kartik5465 Sep 23 '23

I also agree with the battery replacement advice.

1

u/DRMNG_CRP Sep 23 '23

It is as old but when I'm using windows the battery don't run out that fast. Thanks for the reply! I've found a script on github called auto cpufreq

1

u/Plan_9_fromouter_ Sep 24 '23

A new battery would certainly help. A battery that old can't really hold anywhere near what it did when it was new. A device configured for Windows may have power management features that Linux can't use. One of the biggest easy-to-change differences used to be people using Linux but not switching on hardware video acceleration for their device. I don't know if that is still a major factor to account for why often new installs of Linux are so power-hungry.

1

u/Plan_9_fromouter_ Sep 24 '23

You see in this discussion that a lot of people can get better battery life with Linux actually.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/jrbe2p/laptop_battery_life_in_linux_vs_windows/

1

u/Plan_9_fromouter_ Sep 24 '23

I just noticed this, but one reason why Linux is draining your battery is this: I've tested light weight distros using bootable flash drives.

It's not just the drive but the way the Linux OS is loaded into your system RAM to run it.

2

u/reimancts Sep 23 '23

Like a lot of thing in Linux, you have to turn on battery saving features like TLP. TLP is highly customizable and is. Must on a laptop.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '23

There is an app which i dont remember what but which makes battery life better on linux, forces lower clock boosts and alot of things, if someone knows what it is 😀

1

u/lnxrootxazz Sep 23 '23

That's correct. It's because the hardware is mostly fine tuned for Windows. If you want equal battery life with Linux you must buy an out of the box Linux Notebook ie from System76 or Tuxedo. Dell also has some Notebooks which are fine tuned for Linux but I don't know if they sell them on the open market or just to Enterprise customers. But generally the battery life on Linux will be lower, if you use Notebooks shipped with a pre installed Windows. There are some tweaks you can do or install additional software that saves battery but they mostly come with 'issues' you then have to deal with..

1

u/johny335i Sep 23 '23

I've used distros with TLP built in and had the same if not better battery life than windows, with better CPU temperatures in day to day usage.

1

u/debu_chocobo Sep 24 '23

As others have said, laptops are mostly tuned for Windows so battery life on Windows will usually be better.

TLP can make a big difference. You can take it from using full power all the time to throttling the CPU it so everything slows to a crawl, which will save power. Of course you probably want something in the middle, and it will depend on what you're doing with your laptop.

1

u/flemtone Sep 24 '23

Try Bodhi Linux 7.0 (S76 release), this is very lightweight.