If you have been wondering about how to cut down your power usage and get the most out of their laptop battery, then PowerTOP is the key. It is a Linux tool that helps you find those programs that are misbehaving while your computer is idle. When a CPU is idle, it is possible for the processor to go into a sleep mode (C state). Changing C states involves power. So if you want to measure how many times your machine manages to sleep, how long it takes to sleep, and what is causing it to wake up from sleep then PowerTOP will take care of that. Since there are many things that can ruin the party, both inside the kernel and in user space, PowerTOP combines various sources of information from the kernel into one convenient screen so that you can see how well your system is doing at saving power, and which components are the biggest problems.
Since it gives you a snapshot of what apps are consuming the most power, you can just turn off these apps or modify their behavior, and you’ll notice an instant increase in the battery life.
Via – Lesswatts
