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10 Battery Saving Tips When You’re Van-Schooling – WHS 163 - The Wired Homeschool - Tech, Tools, & Tips for Homeschooling a Digital Generation
The homeschooling year has started for many. That means long days sitting around the kitchen table reading books and listening to mom or dad lecture about Algebra or World History.
Maybe that’s the way thing go in your house but my family is out of the house a lot. That means having to do school work in the van sometimes. Maybe the kids can catch up on some reading or do math drills with one of the Kindle Fire tablets.
If your family is like ours you may find yourself running out of power for all of those devices if you’re out of the house for a few hours. That may lead to multiple devices needing to be charged at the same time. Here are 10 Battery Saving Tips When You’re Van-Schooling that will settle squabbles over the power outlets in your van.
The Wired Homeschool is underwritten by Scholaric: The homeschool planner that SAVES you time. Plan, track, and organize your homeschool more easily than you ever imagined. Start your free trial today.
Thanks to all the individual patrons who have supported the podcast. Special thanks go out to Matt Kamla.
10 Battery Saving Tips When You’re Van-Schooling
1. Use airplane mode. All the wireless radios in your device use power. If you’re not actively using your data connection or a wireless connection, just turn it off. Also make sure your Bluetooth radio is turned off if you don’t need it. All of these wireless connections cause your device to drain fast.
2. Don’t turn off your device. This seems counter-intuitive but turning off your device and turning it back on will use more power than letting it sleep. The sleep mode is designed to conserve power and only use a trickle of battery to maintain the device’s memory state. When you turn on a device it uses a lot of power to not only do a self-check but it also runs a number of power-on functions that use more power than if you let the device sleep for a few hours.
3. Turn off push notifications. Besides being a distraction, push notifications also use power. When you enable push notification for an app, it will regularly check online for any updates. This uses up your battery throughout the day. Turning those notifications off will stretch your battery life and ease the insanity of your device constantly beeping at you.
4. Use a reliable 12V charger. Sometimes you just have to charge your device, it can’t be helped. In those instances, get a reliable multi-device charger like the Belkin Road Rockstar. It can charge 4 devices at a time. Don’t go for one of those off-brand knock-offs. Those often have inferior electronic internals and can damage your device. The Belkin Road Rockstar has a $2500 device guarantee. If your device gets fried while charging, Belkin will reimburse the cost of the device.
5. Lower the screen brightness. That bright screen is great. The high-density pixel display makes reading text, playing games, and watching videos easy on the eyes. It also uses a lot of power. To reduce the amount of power consumption, lower the brightness of your screen. You can always turn the brightness back up if you’re in direct sunlight or a particular situation requires it.
6. Don’t stream video. Streaming video is the double-whammy of battery drainage. You’re using your wireless radio and performing a processor intensive task (rendering video). If you can avoid streaming video you can increase battery life by hours.
7. Keep your devices cool. Your kids may think it’s cool to have a tablet or smartphone but they also need to remember to keep that device cool too.
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By John Wilkerson
4.6
3535 ratings
The homeschooling year has started for many. That means long days sitting around the kitchen table reading books and listening to mom or dad lecture about Algebra or World History.
Maybe that’s the way thing go in your house but my family is out of the house a lot. That means having to do school work in the van sometimes. Maybe the kids can catch up on some reading or do math drills with one of the Kindle Fire tablets.
If your family is like ours you may find yourself running out of power for all of those devices if you’re out of the house for a few hours. That may lead to multiple devices needing to be charged at the same time. Here are 10 Battery Saving Tips When You’re Van-Schooling that will settle squabbles over the power outlets in your van.
The Wired Homeschool is underwritten by Scholaric: The homeschool planner that SAVES you time. Plan, track, and organize your homeschool more easily than you ever imagined. Start your free trial today.
Thanks to all the individual patrons who have supported the podcast. Special thanks go out to Matt Kamla.
10 Battery Saving Tips When You’re Van-Schooling
1. Use airplane mode. All the wireless radios in your device use power. If you’re not actively using your data connection or a wireless connection, just turn it off. Also make sure your Bluetooth radio is turned off if you don’t need it. All of these wireless connections cause your device to drain fast.
2. Don’t turn off your device. This seems counter-intuitive but turning off your device and turning it back on will use more power than letting it sleep. The sleep mode is designed to conserve power and only use a trickle of battery to maintain the device’s memory state. When you turn on a device it uses a lot of power to not only do a self-check but it also runs a number of power-on functions that use more power than if you let the device sleep for a few hours.
3. Turn off push notifications. Besides being a distraction, push notifications also use power. When you enable push notification for an app, it will regularly check online for any updates. This uses up your battery throughout the day. Turning those notifications off will stretch your battery life and ease the insanity of your device constantly beeping at you.
4. Use a reliable 12V charger. Sometimes you just have to charge your device, it can’t be helped. In those instances, get a reliable multi-device charger like the Belkin Road Rockstar. It can charge 4 devices at a time. Don’t go for one of those off-brand knock-offs. Those often have inferior electronic internals and can damage your device. The Belkin Road Rockstar has a $2500 device guarantee. If your device gets fried while charging, Belkin will reimburse the cost of the device.
5. Lower the screen brightness. That bright screen is great. The high-density pixel display makes reading text, playing games, and watching videos easy on the eyes. It also uses a lot of power. To reduce the amount of power consumption, lower the brightness of your screen. You can always turn the brightness back up if you’re in direct sunlight or a particular situation requires it.
6. Don’t stream video. Streaming video is the double-whammy of battery drainage. You’re using your wireless radio and performing a processor intensive task (rendering video). If you can avoid streaming video you can increase battery life by hours.
7. Keep your devices cool. Your kids may think it’s cool to have a tablet or smartphone but they also need to remember to keep that device cool too.