Just thought I might put this up for discussion - please let me know if it's old hat or if I've missed a major point!
I have been trying to decide whether to move away from my 'AA only' position and consider 123 lights. I was out and about today, and had a look around to see how easy 123's were to come by locally, and their relative cost.
Well, they weren't very easy to find at all round my way (western suburbs of Melbourne) on a Sunday. I tried 2 service stations and a large hardware store with no luck. K-mart had some and no doubt the usual electronics suppliers would have them, but I kind of hoped they might be a bit easier to find - especially as lots of these places actually seem to be expanding their battery range lately.
Anyway, on to cost. I'm not a heavy enough user to justify purchasing rechargable 123s, so I crunched some numbers based entirely on the prices listed by Jaycar Electronics, a reasonably-priced mainstay of Aussie electronic retailing. There are likely better deals to be had, and I realise the numbers would be different with Alkaline cells, but I don't know whether the relative price difference would change an awful lot.
It just so happens that Jaycar lists Japanese-made, Energizer Lithium cells in both sizes. They charge AU$13.50 for 2xAA and AU$19.95 for 1xCR123A - so the 123 is about 3 times the cost of the equivalent AA. The table below uses these costs and the lumens/runtime figures quoted by 4sevens.
It looks to me like it will cost 2 to 3 times as much to run the 123 versions as the AA, even taking into account the performance gains. It also looks like the new Minis give you twice as much bang for your battery buck as the regular Quarks.
Does this all sound reasonable or have I screwed up somewhere?
I have been trying to decide whether to move away from my 'AA only' position and consider 123 lights. I was out and about today, and had a look around to see how easy 123's were to come by locally, and their relative cost.
Well, they weren't very easy to find at all round my way (western suburbs of Melbourne) on a Sunday. I tried 2 service stations and a large hardware store with no luck. K-mart had some and no doubt the usual electronics suppliers would have them, but I kind of hoped they might be a bit easier to find - especially as lots of these places actually seem to be expanding their battery range lately.
Anyway, on to cost. I'm not a heavy enough user to justify purchasing rechargable 123s, so I crunched some numbers based entirely on the prices listed by Jaycar Electronics, a reasonably-priced mainstay of Aussie electronic retailing. There are likely better deals to be had, and I realise the numbers would be different with Alkaline cells, but I don't know whether the relative price difference would change an awful lot.
It just so happens that Jaycar lists Japanese-made, Energizer Lithium cells in both sizes. They charge AU$13.50 for 2xAA and AU$19.95 for 1xCR123A - so the 123 is about 3 times the cost of the equivalent AA. The table below uses these costs and the lumens/runtime figures quoted by 4sevens.
It looks to me like it will cost 2 to 3 times as much to run the 123 versions as the AA, even taking into account the performance gains. It also looks like the new Minis give you twice as much bang for your battery buck as the regular Quarks.
Does this all sound reasonable or have I screwed up somewhere?