January 8, 2014
With Toronto in the grips of a deep freeze, it’s hard to keep yourself warm, let alone your electronics. Global News spoke with ECE Professor Olivier Trescases for a story about how temperatures below -4 degrees Celsius can drain power from standard Lithium Ion batteries—particularly those in mobile devices like smartphones.
“The core chemistry behind the battery technology has not been improving nearly as fast as the electronics,” said Professor Trescases. “So the microprocessors, the memory, all of that stuff that makes your cell phone work has been improving exponentially over the past few decades, whereas the battery hasn’t.”
For this story the reporter placed two identical smartphones in different locations for 30 minutes: one inside at room temperature, and the other outside in frigid conditions. After half an hour, the indoor phone’s battery had drained from 100% to 99%, while the outdoor phone drained from 100% to 86%. However when the reporter tried to turn on the outdoor phone to use it, it shut down entirely. The news report recommended keeping phones in pockets near body heat, and not turning phones on until they have warmed up indoors.
More information:
Marit Mitchell
Senior Communications Officer
The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
416-978-7997; marit.mitchell@utoronto.ca