How to Improve Short Battery Life on Your Canary Camera
The Canary Flex and other battery-powered Canary models offer incredible versatility, but this freedom can be compromised if you find yourself needing to recharge the device every few days. If your Canary's battery life is shorter than you expect, this guide will walk you through the factors that impact battery consumption and how to optimise them.
### Understanding What Drains Your Canary's Battery
A Canary camera's battery is primarily consumed by three activities:
- Recording Motion: Detecting and recording video.
- Uploading Video: Transmitting the recorded video clip to the Canary cloud via Wi-Fi.
- Streaming Live View: When you are actively watching the live feed from your camera.
The more frequently your camera performs these actions, the faster its battery will drain. Our goal is to reduce the frequency of these high-power tasks without compromising your security.
## Step 1: Reduce Unnecessary Motion Recordings
This is the most significant factor for battery drain. If your camera is constantly triggered, it's constantly working.
- Optimise Camera Placement: Is your camera pointed at a busy pavement, a road with constant traffic, or a tree whose leaves and branches sway in the wind? These are common sources of constant motion alerts that drain the battery.
- Action: Try to angle the camera to focus only on the area you need to monitor, such as your walkway or porch, while excluding the high-traffic areas.
- Use the Masking Feature (Premium): If you are a Canary Premium member, you have access to motion masking. This powerful feature allows you to draw zones on the screen to designate areas where motion should be ignored. You can mask out a busy street or a neighbour's garden to prevent them from triggering recordings.
- Adjust Motion Sensitivity: In the Canary app's settings, you can lower the motion sensitivity slider. This means a more significant event is required to start a recording. If it's set too high, even small things like insects or shadows can trigger it. Try lowering it one level at a time to find a good balance.
## Step 2: Improve Wi-Fi Signal Strength
This is a hidden battery killer. If the camera has a weak connection to your Wi-Fi router, it has to boost its internal radio power to send and receive data, which consumes a lot of energy.
- Check the Signal: In the Canary app, go to the device's settings and check its Wi-Fi signal strength.
- Action: If the signal is weak (one or two bars), you need to improve it.
- Move your Wi-Fi router closer to the Canary camera.
- Move the Canary camera closer to your router.
- Consider installing a Wi-Fi mesh system or a range extender to provide a stronger signal to the camera's location.
### Step 3: Limit Live Viewing
Actively streaming the live feed from your camera is one of the most power-intensive things it can do.
- Action: While it's useful to check in, avoid leaving the live stream running on your phone or computer for extended periods. Trust the motion alerts to notify you when something important happens and check the recorded clips instead of constantly monitoring the live feed.
## Step 4: Consider Environmental Factors
Extreme temperatures can have a significant impact on the performance and health of lithium-ion batteries.
- Cold Weather: In temperatures below freezing (0°C / 32°F), the battery's ability to deliver power is reduced, which can make it seem like it's draining very quickly or cause the camera to shut down.
- Hot Weather: High temperatures can also reduce the overall lifespan of the battery.
If your camera is in a location with extreme temperatures, its battery performance will be affected. Try to place it in a more sheltered spot if possible. By systematically addressing these areas, you can significantly extend the time between charges for your Canary camera.