Wireless charging reduces battery life
It is easy for consumers to find the capacity of a battery, but finding more in-depth information like charge cycles is not as easy. New research by the American Chemical Society (ACS) discovered that using wireless chargers can decrease the life of your battery.
The report highlights how the induction charging technology used in wireless chargers creates many different sources of heat. Misaligned wireless charging generates even more heat that reduces battery life much faster. As the report points out, “temperature can significantly affect the health status of batteries during their useful life.” This means that higher temperatures reduce battery life.
One of the charts in the ACS report shows that for maximum battery life, smartphone exposure should be at temperatures between 15⁰C and 40⁰C. Inductive charging, generates enough heat to reduce the number of charging cycles of the smartphone battery.
Three Methods of Charging
The researchers studied 3 different methods of charging. Firstly, there’s a regular wired method and then a wireless charger that aligned with the coils in the phone. Thirdly, there is a wireless charger that didn’t align with the coils of the phone. We found that the temperature did not exceed 27 degrees Celsius when using the standard wired procedure. The temperature of the aligned wireless charging began at 30.5⁰, but dropped halfway through. The experiment in wireless charging with no alignment showed similar results, but the hottest temperature came earlier and it was also maintained for 70 minutes more.
To increase the life of your phone’s battery, it is important to not perform demanding tasks or use this charging method in high temperature environments. Also, make sure to remove your protective case on the device. This will help with heat dissipation and make things run more efficiently. Also, aligning the base coil with that of your phone will ensure a more stable connection.
Reverse wireless charging (e.g. a mobile phone acting as a base to charge other smaller devices such as wireless headphones or even other smartphones) was not mentioned in the research and it is unknown how this may affect the longevity of your battery.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
