We use AA batteries for pretty much everything. Wireless goodies for computers. Digital cameras. CD players (still, yes). Headlamps (yay camping). Television remotes and other stuff I can't even think of right now. The bottom line is that we always seem to need a battery for something. So why the heck would you keep buying them?
I finally decided that, duh, I
don't need to keep buying them. So I purchased an
Energizer Battery Charger and a reasonable number of AAs and AAAs to keep my electronics running forever.
The charger came with 2 AAs, but I needed more since I have a wireless mouse, keyboard, and CD player. So I bought just one more package of 4, which cost around $12. It may sound expensive right now, but considering that I've used them multiple times since buying them, well, let's do some math.
Pretending that I've needed 2 new batteries 12 times in a given time and I buy regular batteries in packs of 4:
1 package of rechargeable AAs @ $12 each= $12
6 packages of regular AAs @ $6 each = $36
And that's just on a small scale. In reality, I've already saved myself....good gravy, I'm not even sure how much, but I know it's a lot.
I bought batteries with a power of 2000mAh. Honesly, I don't know what that means, but I do know that with my charger, it takes around 8-12.5 hours to fully charge them. But I made sure to buy enough that I can have some charged and on hand when suddenly my wireless mouse goes into seizures as the last of the battery power goes. It's really best to have them right after they've finished charging, but I tend to let them sit around so they naturally lose a bit of their charge. It's not a big deal though - I can just charge them again when I need to.
I haven't bought batteries for almost a year now, if I remember right. It might be longer. I've just been charging and switching these little guys over and over. I've not had any problems with them and though their life in my electronics isn't as long as a regular battery, I don't much care (though it's probably because I don't always charge them for the full amount of time and let them sit around like I mentioned above, so it's likely my fault). I'm saving a ton of money in the process, as well as helping keep the environment clean by not chucking out batteries every month.
Sounds like a good deal to me.
NT
Newark
