Fan is on at a fairly low temperature, but working as intended. How can I adjust this on a thinkpad to save battery?

Question

Hi I use my laptop under the sheets, usually in a relatively idle state.

If I bring the thinkpad out from the cold, the fans are off, but if I am under the sheets at room temperature, the fans are constantly on low, never adjusting, I guess because the air is too warm to cool it any further. This really takes a hit on my battery performance which is the most important to me. If my CPU is actually legitimately hot, I want the fans on, but not when its just room or slightly above room temperature.

I am using the latest kubuntu and am willing to do some programming if neccessary. Is there anything I can do from the linux end of things to tell the fan not to spin at the lower temperatures?

Thanks.

prolly a good idea just to plug it into the charger if ur using it like that — SerialGamer, Jan 26 '21 at 07:12
Not sure about brand new ThinkPads, but I used think-fan package in the past and it worked nicely. — marosg, Jan 26 '21 at 09:16
Typical fans use less than 5W of electricity. Depending on the CPU and load, CPU power can vary between 60W and 140W. It might be better to disable services that are running that you don't need to reduce power consumption. — rtaft, Jan 27 '21 at 14:06

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 26 '21 at 09:11

0

A utility called fancontrol might help. Install:

sudo apt install -y fancontrol

Page on arch wiki: Fan Speed Control - ArchWiki

This might only work if your laptop is relatively new. It needs to have PWM(pulse-width modulation) for being able to adjust it.

Edit: Found a good answer: power management - How to control fan speed?

answered Jan 26 '21 at 09:11

Vedant36

101

Laptops rarely have PWM. Given that it's a thinkpad, think-fan is the better bet. – rtaft Jan 27 '21 at 13:57

Fan is on at a fairly low temperature, but working as intended. How can I adjust this on a thinkpad to save battery?

1 Answers1