can you explain to me whats the difference between energy and capacity in batteries
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Katherine Alicia
Enlightened
I`ll try...
Energy is the ability to do work, often measured in Watts.
when we discus Watts in terms of electricity, it`s made up of Volts times Amps, so a 4 Amp 4 Volt battery will deliver 16 watts (Volts X Amps = Watts).
so your battery will be able to run a 16 Watt radio for 1 hour, or a 32W radio for half an hour, or 64W for 15 mins etc... there is a limit to this however! you can`t carry on doubling it forever (except on paper) because the battery chemistry and physics forbid you from drawing Infinite watts in Zero seconds! LOL
I`ll let someone else deal with capacity because it`s a bit vague in this context.
edited to add: it works the other way as well, you could run an 8W radio for 2 hours, a 4W for 4 hours etc...
Energy is the ability to do work, often measured in Watts.
when we discus Watts in terms of electricity, it`s made up of Volts times Amps, so a 4 Amp 4 Volt battery will deliver 16 watts (Volts X Amps = Watts).
so your battery will be able to run a 16 Watt radio for 1 hour, or a 32W radio for half an hour, or 64W for 15 mins etc... there is a limit to this however! you can`t carry on doubling it forever (except on paper) because the battery chemistry and physics forbid you from drawing Infinite watts in Zero seconds! LOL
I`ll let someone else deal with capacity because it`s a bit vague in this context.
edited to add: it works the other way as well, you could run an 8W radio for 2 hours, a 4W for 4 hours etc...
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chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
Check this out.
So in this metaphor, capacity (mAh milliAmp hours) is the volume of water in the reservoir that all this water comes from.
So in this metaphor, capacity (mAh milliAmp hours) is the volume of water in the reservoir that all this water comes from.
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Katherine Alicia
Enlightened
Basically Yes, but there are rules!, your emitter and driver board only work in a given voltage range, so doubling the Volts would indeed double your "power" but probably blow something up! LOL, the only thing left you can alter is the Current (Amps), so if your battery is a 2000ma, then putting a 4000ma battery of the same voltage in there would double your power also, it just wouldn`t blow anything up
chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
Not really. You'd want more light time. You use medium as opposed to high to stretch the release of your capacity out over time. The Energy would remain constant whether you blow all your capacity on high in, say, 10 minutes, or stretch it to, say, 30 minutes using medium.
chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
V = IR or I = V/R or R = V/I
where I is the current through the conductor in units of amperes, V is the voltage measured across the conductor in units of volts, and R is the resistance of the conductor in units of ohms.
Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points.
Katherine Alicia
Enlightened
another way to remember it as a practical example is that 1 Volt across (shorted out with) 1 Ohm will draw 1 Amp, from there you can jugle the numbers around to match whatever you`re trying to work out.
chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
Sorry for stepping all over your replies, Katherine Alicia!
Katherine Alicia
Enlightened
chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
not at all! the more perspectives the greater the chance of understanding
I say something similar... if everyone always agreed, nothing would advance.
Katherine Alicia
Enlightened
I don`t think we actually disagreed in posts #6 and #7, we just interpreted the question differently and naturaly gave 2 different answers, both correct for the individual interpretation., we effectively answered 2 different questions LOL
Katherine Alicia
Enlightened
have you got a link at all, it would probably be easier to answer. there`s all sort of lithium cells, some are useless for flashlights.
raggie33
*the raggedier*
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- Aug 11, 2003
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there aa cells buy a company called bevigor. they run like 1.74 volts and rated at 3000 mah they sure gave me more run time then alkaleaks
Katherine Alicia
Enlightened
Hmmm... Sounds like a pretty good deal for 65 cents then! though 1.74 volts isn`t a common voltage spec for batts that I`m aware of, I wonder what the chemistry for them is, in particular the cathode material? Are they Primary cells or rechargables?
