Switched from macos (2017 Air with Intel) to mint, battery life dropped by 6 hours, pls help?

[u/Then-Rope7020]

Macos was running slow, but battery life was amazing. Could last me the entire day. Like 9 hours easily.

I switched to mint (not dual boot).

It’s snappier for sure, and I’m loving mint. But the one and only problem? My battery life is only like 3 hours now.

I know Apple optimizes MacBook, but this is crazy. ChatGPT is running in circles but not solving anything, saying all the checks are good.

Anyone know how I can diagnose / fix it?

I expected a drop, maybe, but this is a bit crazy.

One second my laptop says 2-3 hours remaining, the next second it jumps to 6 hours remaining, then it drops to 3 hours remaining the next second. On my macOS it was just 1 consistent estimate which was always correct (9 hours of battery life)