I live in the polar vortex and so walking outside I’ve had a full phone battery go dead in under twenty minutes. We’re talking idk ≈ -40F. When it’s warmed up again there it is suddenly at 60%. I don’t expect to understand well because I know little about batteries, but what’s the deal? And how is it that once it’s warmed it is not only fully functional but has retained charge? At what temperature does this effect begin to take hold?
In: Technology
Batteries provide electrical power by means of a chemical reaction. This chemical reaction slows down in colder temperatures, causing it to not be able to put out as much current, and even causing its voltage to drop. The energy is still there, but the battery just can’t put it out there as fast as it normally would. A device like a phone typically doesn’t measure the actual amount of energy remaining in its battery… rather, it measures its voltage and calculates its energy from that. This is why when you take the battery indoors or otherwise warm it up, the energy seems to “come back”.
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