Skype video call taking a lot of battery power on mavericks I have got mavericks 10.9.2 and latest Skype version 6.14(351) on a MBA 2013.
Whilst on a video call with one person only both cameras turned one and very good wifi signal Skype drained about 18% of the battery for 30 minutes. 
Also the laptop base became quite warm to even hot. 

Is this normal and if not, how might I resolve it?
Video processing is a CPU intensive task. 18% for 30 minutes is within normal operating times, as far as I can tell. 

To save battery, consider lowering the brightness of your screen during a video call.