What I did is set up my Hotmail using the stock email client, I then went into settings and set the account sync schedule to push from 8 in the morning till 10 at night and to manual from 10 till 8. This makes huge difference to my battery life and also stops me getting woken during the night with some obscure company sending me emails. I also notice that on my phone when I look at accounts, my Hotmail account actually shows as Microsoft exchange active sync and I think this is what allows the extra settings. The link here How do I Set Up Microsoft

 

Glad it helped.