Think of a hot summer day. You find yourself with a refreshing glass of your favorite beverage and only two ice cubes to keep it cool throughout your drink session. These ice cubes, essential for a pleasant experience, slowly melt away as you enjoy your drink. This situation is much like managing the life of a lithium-ion battery.
When you first pour your drink, the ice cubes are at their peak, efficiently cooling your beverage. Similarly, a fully charged li-ion battery is at its most effective, ready to power your device. As you drink, you might consider when to refill the glass. If you wait until the last sip of the drink, the ice cubes will greatly diminish & won't be as effective for the next pour. This is akin to letting a battery drain too low before recharging; it has already used much of its stored energy, reducing its effectiveness and overall lifespan.
So, what's the best strategy? Refilling your glass before it reaches the last 20% could be a good rule of thumb. This way, the ice still has enough capacity to make the next serving just as enjoyable.
For your li-ion battery, this translates to recharging before it's around 80% discharged. This practice avoids deep discharges, preserves the battery's health, & extends its usable life. Waiting too long to refill your glass when the ice is nearly melted means your next drink won’t be as refreshing. The same goes for your battery; discharging it deeply before recharging can accelerate wear & tear, shortening its life. In everyday terms, this means being mindful of your battery usage. Regularly recharging it before it gets too low can significantly increase its lifespan & maintain its efficiency. Just as those two ice cubes are more effective when used judiciously, so too is your battery's ability to hold & deliver power, which is most effective when managed wisely.
This concept of Depth of Discharge (DoD) in li-ion batteries is a critical aspect that determines their performance, lifespan, and efficiency. DoD refers to how much of a battery's capacity has been used compared to its total capacity. This is expressed as a percentage, indicating the proportion of energy extracted from the battery relative to its overall energy capacity. A fundamental aspect of DoD is its direct impact on the battery's usable capacity and runtime.
Essentially, the higher the DoD, the more energy is consumed from the battery, leading to a reduction in its runtime. This means that as the DoD increases, the operational duration of the battery in a device diminishes. In practice, if a battery is regularly discharged to a high DoD, it will need to be recharged more frequently after some cycles, affecting its practical usability.