Help understand Activity Monitor and terrible battery

[kat.hayes]

I have a 13-inch early 2015 MBP 3.1 GHz Dual Core Intel i7 with 16GB of ram. After upgrading to Big Sur my battery life has been terrible. Here is a screenshot of my Activity Monitor, it seems to consistently show that Mail and Firefox are the culprits? What could cause Mail from eating so much battery? I only have five open tabs in Firefox.

Thanks for any info

 

[Fishrrman]

Well...
You could QUIT Mail.app, and just open it once or twice an hour (or longer) to do "mail checks".

On my Macs, the only time I open the Mail.app is when I feel like checking email. Sometimes I let it go for several hours between mail calls.

This isn't "the answer" to the problem... only a workaround.
But sometimes, if one doesn't have the answer, the workaround has to do...

 

[kat.hayes]

That is what I've been doing. I was at a 100% charge about an hr ago, at 47% now...Laptop is much less useful as a laptop