Rechargeable battery
Revision as of 10:51, 29 January 2013 by NT (talk | contribs) (→When they're not as good: replace section with link)
Good AA rechargeables ones now give similar capacity to alkaline, around 2.8Ah. At £1.50 a cell lasting 500 charges that's 0.3p per charge. Alkaline AAs at 17p each are thus 56x the cost.
Zinc carbons are much cheaper per battery, but give even less capacity per cost.
The cost of the recharging electricity is trivial. A 2.5Ah 1.2v cell holds 3 watthours, or 0.003 kWh. Allowing for inefficiencies, 0.005kWh costs 0.005x13p = 0.065p. You can recharge 15 for a penny.
- Alkaline cost: 17p each
- Rechargeable cost plus electricity: 0.365p
Where capacity isn't so important, cheap rechargeables at half the price typically give around 1/3 the capacity.
When they're not as good
Discussion of the apps where alkaline are better is here