If you spend any time with a laptop, battery life is likely very important to you. With these tricks, you can literally double, or triple your average battery life.
By default your Desktop system comes with the following tweaks:
thermaldinformationTLPinformation
Measuing
powerstat
This is an intersting tool that estimates your average energy consumption.
$ su - root # login as root
$ guix package -i powerstat
$ powerstat
Running for 300.0 seconds (30 samples at 10.0 second intervals).
Power measurements will start in 180 seconds time.
Time User Nice Sys Idle IO Run Ctxt/s IRQ/s Fork Exec Exit Watts
17:45:57 3.7 0.0 1.0 95.1 0.2 1 18216 6425 9 7 8 14.02
17:46:07 8.9 0.0 0.8 90.0 0.3 1 17249 6867 8 8 5 13.65
17:46:17 3.7 0.0 1.0 95.1 0.2 2 19971 8947 6 7 12 13.95
17:46:27 13.0 0.0 0.9 85.9 0.2 3 17156 7230 3 6 6 14.54
17:46:37 9.5 0.0 0.9 89.1 0.5 1 19168 4085 7 8 8 15.65
17:46:47 4.1 0.0 0.8 94.9 0.2 2 14095 3602 5 7 6 15.63
17:46:57 4.6 0.0 1.3 94.0 0.2 1 18573 8782 7 6 4 14.94
17:47:07 8.1 0.0 1.1 90.4 0.4 1 14500 8270 13 8 6 15.08
17:47:17 5.6 0.0 1.0 93.2 0.3 1 19143 7395 5 7 5 15.35
17:47:27 5.8 0.0 0.8 93.2 0.2 1 15271 3717 4 6 3 14.88
17:47:37 5.2 0.0 0.9 93.5 0.4 6 18725 6805 22 8 14 14.98
17:47:47 1.8 0.0 0.7 97.1 0.3 1 13808 3267 13 7 7 14.78
17:47:57 1.8 0.0 1.0 97.0 0.2 1 18166 4832 9 10 9 13.93
17:48:07 2.0 0.0 0.9 97.0 0.1 1 13143 6813 8 8 6 13.18
17:48:17 4.4 0.0 1.0 93.9 0.7 1 16119 6932 11 12 34 13.23
17:48:27 8.5 0.0 1.0 90.2 0.3 1 17015 7758 5 7 9 13.68
17:48:37 3.3 0.0 1.0 95.4 0.2 1 16180 9186 6 9 10 13.59
17:48:47 5.5 0.0 1.2 93.0 0.3 1 19923 9726 20 17 17 13.61
17:48:57 2.7 0.0 0.9 96.2 0.2 2 16002 8392 7 6 7 14.03
17:49:07 8.5 0.0 1.6 89.4 0.4 2 19268 7476 42 27 25 14.60
17:49:17 2.0 0.0 1.0 96.2 0.7 1 18003 9764 4 6 15 14.06
17:49:27 5.2 0.0 1.7 93.1 0.0 2 18819 7888 482 292 477 13.81
17:49:37 4.0 0.0 1.1 93.9 1.0 1 15862 10252 35 19 56 14.34
17:49:47 7.1 0.0 1.1 91.3 0.5 1 20367 10639 5 6 9 14.38
17:49:57 3.9 0.0 1.2 94.8 0.2 8 21489 9459 6 6 5 15.04
17:50:07 2.7 0.0 1.0 96.0 0.2 4 16335 6346 27 8 8 14.37
17:50:17 3.0 0.0 1.1 95.3 0.6 1 21020 8836 10 7 8 14.20
17:50:27 2.1 0.0 1.0 96.6 0.3 1 15320 9200 28 23 28 14.13
17:50:37 5.4 0.0 1.2 93.0 0.3 1 21896 9497 19 17 30 13.57
17:50:47 3.5 0.0 0.9 95.3 0.3 1 14920 7175 12 8 10 13.90
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
Average 5.0 0.0 1.0 93.6 0.3 1.7 17524.0 7518.7 27.9 19.1 28.2 14.30
GeoMean 4.4 0.0 1.0 93.6 0.0 1.4 17367.8 7196.2 10.8 9.8 11.1 14.29
StdDev 2.7 0.0 0.2 2.7 0.2 1.6 2323.5 1989.5 84.9 51.0 84.1 0.66
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
Minimum 1.8 0.0 0.7 85.9 0.0 1.0 13142.6 3267.1 3.0 6.0 3.0 13.18
Maximum 13.0 0.0 1.7 97.1 1.0 8.0 21896.5 10638.7 482.0 292.0 477.0 15.65
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
Summary:
System: 14.30 Watts on average with standard deviation 0.66
Tools
Throttled
Using throttled, you can additionally reduce the power consumption by adjusting CPU and GPU voltage. This should be used with caution!
- repository <- read this first!
- config template for
/etc/throttled/config.conf
You will need to adjust the config to suit your needs. Here’s what works for me (i7-8565U)… Results vary greatly!:
[UNDERVOLT.BATTERY]
# CPU core voltage offset (mV)
CORE: -90
# Integrated GPU voltage offset (mV)
GPU: -65
# CPU cache voltage offset (mV)
CACHE: -90
# System Agent voltage offset (mV)
UNCORE: -65
# Analog I/O voltage offset (mV)
ANALOGIO: 0
Install and run:
$ su - root
$ guix package -i throttled
$ throttled --config /etc/throttled/config.conf
Right now there’s no service yet, so you’ll have to run su - root; throttled --config /etc/throttled/config.conf manually on each startup. It should be easy enough to prepare one though …
Just for the curious, here are some readings from powerstat with throttled running:
Time User Nice Sys Idle IO Run Ctxt/s IRQ/s Fork Exec Exit Watts
18:12:20 2.5 0.0 1.1 95.8 0.6 1 15237 4867 7 6 12 11.95
18:12:30 2.0 0.0 1.0 96.5 0.4 2 14098 4816 11 12 11 11.63
18:12:40 2.6 0.0 1.1 95.9 0.5 1 15202 3237 22 8 8 11.49
18:12:50 3.5 0.0 1.2 95.2 0.2 1 20642 5714 8 6 6 11.61
18:13:00 2.3 0.0 1.1 95.6 1.0 1 16946 6556 5 6 7 11.46
cpupower
For more agressive power savings, I’ve found this tool the be useful.
su - root
guix package -i cpupower
cpupower frequency-set -g powersave
Again some readings from powerstat with throttled running, after cpupower adjustments:
Time User Nice Sys Idle IO Run Ctxt/s IRQ/s Fork Exec Exit Watts
18:32:41 4.1 0.1 2.0 93.3 0.6 1 9997 6825 37 27 28 7.45
18:32:51 16.3 0.0 3.2 73.1 7.3 1 24108 10618 179 52 94 9.14
18:33:01 7.9 0.1 2.4 89.4 0.2 1 15276 8806 18 18 17 8.89
18:33:11 9.2 0.1 2.1 88.5 0.2 1 11546 3990 6 6 8 9.04
18:33:21 6.6 0.0 2.4 90.9 0.1 1 10996 3116 6 8 21 8.79
Together these tools to provide me with a substantial boost in runtime.