Everywhere I go on campus I see people on their laptops. Their usually hunched over, sitting on the floor, next to an outlet. In fact it is almost a strange sight to see people not charging their laptops.

I don’t normally bring my charger with me, I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I get about 3.5 hours of usage on battery. I haven’t always been lucky though. My old HP with its 17″ wide screen and turbo jet engine fans only got about 1.5 hours, though I never took it anywhere because it was so big and heavy. Those times are over, I have a great portable laptop that I don’t have to be constantly searching for an outlet in order to use it.

So here are a few tips I’ve found to get the most out of your battery.

Don’t leave your laptop plugged in all the time, if you do, you might as well remove the battery and store it with a half charge. This might not be true anymore with Li Ion batteries. I’m not sure… someone will know in the comments.

Turn down the monitor’s brightness.

Avoid using the CD/DVD drive.

Turn off the keyboards backlight.

Turn off Bluetooth, Airport, Sync, System Sounds. If you’re not using them, don’t turn them on.

Cut down on running applications.

Remove external devices like mice, iPods, other USB devices.

Use Safari. It may just be me but Firefox is slow with all the Add ons and memory issues.

Change your power settings to “Better Battery Life”. This will often change your processor power to enable longer battery life.

If you notice your fans are turning on more and more, they could be clogged with dust. It’s worth spraying them out with a can of air to get the debris out of the heatsink and fan housing. It was hard to believe how much dust choked my HPs fans.

If all else fails, it might be time for a new battery. That may not be a bad thing since some non-Apple batteries have higher capacity then original Apple equipment.

Hopefully these tips will help free you from your laptop’s power brick.