The "one battery type" theory

[reppans]

....Just wondered if any of you have ever thought about this ?

Is this "one battery type" theory any good ?.....

Absolutely.

About 5 years ago, soon after Sanyo invented the LSD Eneloop, I made a conscious effect to consolidated my battery usage around AAs. Flashlights are only one piece of the puzzle, though. I'm a camper (via 2 feet, 2 wheels, 4 wheels, or hull) and have a collection of handheld, portable electronic gadgets such as: flashlights, headlamps, lanterns, digicam, GPS, radios, walkie talkies, UV water purifiers, iPhone, iPad, etc. All are now AA-based, or at least AA-compatible (Apple stuff) so that I can power everything with from one set of spare batts, one wall/car charger (Maha C9000), or solar charger (Powerfilm) if off-grid or SHTF. I find it a lot easier and more versatile than spare proprietary li-ions for each device, and their dedicated chargers, or keeping track of different battery types for individual devices. If I didn't bring enough spare AAs, I always have the option of cannibalizing batts from other devices, or buying them from any store.

More specifically, with regard to flashlights, I'm into ultra-light portability and massive runtimes, and the single-cell 4/7s Quark AA and Zebralight H51w, service my purpose perfectly. As a camper, my eyes are usually in night vision mode and so moonlight and a low single-digit lumen are just about perfect for 80% of my light usage - anything more than that gets to be painful and a waste of juice at the same time.... one of the main reasons most of my Petzl & Black Diamond headlamps and lanterns are now collecting dust.

Of course it's nice to have 100-200 lumens on these lights, but I really only use them if I get caught bicycling after sundown, believe an animal is stalking me in the night (never happened), or simply want to show off. I still can't understand why some people are so obsessed with massive lumens... maybe it's a east coast forest vs western desert thing :shrug:.

 

[rushnrockt]

All local stores are closed, one of them is still open :huh:, they have AA, AAA, 9V :thumbsup: ... but they DON'T sell CR123 batteries.

There is a post you can search for from a guy working in a store during severe weather and the one type of battery the store did NOT run out of was CR123. Something to consider before building up "action" plans.

If anything, having many different devices being able to take many different batteries would be the best survival strategy.

 

[Wrend]

"Perfect, I don't have to worry about anything"

I mostly just use AA or AAA lights. For the cells I use Eneloops, and have several extra sets that I rotate through. They're charged and ready to use at all times. Even then, I have a couple MH-C9000 chargers that can run on 12V Pb in a pinch.

My hobby chargers can run off of 12V Pb too.

I plan on also getting a 100+ Ah deep discharge Pb, a capable 7+ A PV solar panel, charge controller, and maintenance plug-in charger.

Eventually I'd also like to set up an off-grid capable HAM radio shack and mobile station.

 

[illumiGeek]

Absolutely.

About 5 years ago, soon after Sanyo invented the LSD Eneloop, I made a conscious effect to consolidated my battery usage around AAs. Flashlights are only one piece of the puzzle, though...

This was my feeling, and action as well. I've switched pretty much exclusively to AA (and a few AAA) powered devices, or devices that can easily be adapted to AA power. It has simplified my life, as far as batteries, chargers and battery powered devices go, without any real compromises. C-cell powered devices are easily adapted to AA power. The cells are the same length, so adapters can be made cheaply and easily from 3/4" PVC pipe and duct tape. Here's a pic of my LC100 HID dive light adapted from C to AA power.

For D-cell devices there are those adapters that came with the older Eneloop packs, although I usually try to avoid D-cell powered devices (the only D cell devices I have are portable fans).

Most of the other battery powered devices I have (remotes, clocks, keyboards, mice, etc.) are powered by either AA or AAA batteries, so I have an ample supply of LSD rechargeables in both sizes, and a bunch of chargers to accommodate them. With my LaCrosse BC900 and Maha C9000+C801D chargers I can quickly charge up to 12 AA/AAA cells. And with several "backup" chargers I could charge a couple of dozen more. Many of those chargers can be powered off my car if need be.

I still have one single-cell CR123 light that I am using to burn through the last of my 123 battery stash. After all the horror stories I've read about multi-cell 123 lights going on people I no longer use them. While the odds are small, it just isn't worth any risk to me when excellent AA/AAA powered light are available. I just don't understand the continuing love of CR123 cells here. In the pre-Eneloop (LSD) days I could see some appeal, but not any more.

I am quite happy living the "one battery type" lifestyle. Well, I suppose it's technically two if you count AAA as well, but they still use the same charger.

Of course, that's just my opinion, you are welcome to yours.

 

[Samy]

Re: "Perfect, I don't have to worry about anything"

I mostly just use AA or AAA lights. For the cells I use Eneloops, and have several extra sets that I rotate through. They're charged and ready to use at all times. Even then, I have a couple MH-C9000 chargers that can run on 12V Pb in a pinch.

My hobby chargers can run off of 12V Pb too.

I plan on also getting a 100+ Ah deep discharge Pb, a capable 7+ A PV solar panel, charge controller, and maintenance plug-in charger.

Eventually I'd also like to set up an off-grid capable HAM radio shack and mobile station.

x2

I just use AA or AAA Eneloops. I have a large 12v 105 amp/hr deep cycle battery in my garage which is charged via a 60 watt solar panel and i charge all my Eneloop and other devices with 12v adaptors via the 12v battery. I don't have to worry about emergency battery charging because i'm already doing it in my daily routine. Plus it's completely free power!

cheers

 

[Dr Jekell]

Re: "Perfect, I don't have to worry about anything"

My first thought upon reading the OP was:

"Here we go again"

I own & carry both CR123 & AA lights and I can & will use either depending on the task I need to complete.

That said I also carry several spare batteries for both (15x CR123, 4x AA Enloops, 2x AA Lithium). Thus I am not too worried about my lights running out of juice (All together I believe I have somewhere around 50 days or so of run time if I use the lower levels on the lights).

I would also be remiss in my maintenance of said lights if I were to leave depleted batteries in my main and secondary lights without rotating the batteries to the "partially used" tray for use in battery vampire lights.

 

[SemiMan]

Not sure where the Power over Versatility option comes about with CR123 batteries. I mainly consider CR123 to be a holdover from when flashlights were made by people who could not design good switching power supply circuits, the IC vendors were not up to par with the good low voltage switching power supply ICs, CR123s were used in cameras, and last but not least, LEDs had higher forward voltages. All 4 of those items are things of the past hence I do not see a lot of need for CR123 any more (though I am sure many will scream about this). There is little energy advantage of CR123s over NiMH AAs. Add in the issues with capacity decline of fully charged Lithium Ion (cobalt) batteries not stored in the refrigerator, and I have little reason to choose them over Eneloops for almost all my flashlight.

That said, I still do use high capacity 18650's that I do store in the refrigerator. These are used for my ultra bright bike light which uses 4 - 18650s which were chosen for total energy storage and weight.

Semiman

 

[Chrisdm]

I love my 18650 torches, they are my "go to" lights for just about everything. However, in the bugout bag in my truck and the earthquake kit in my house, ive got AA flashlights to go with my AA radios. I belive that in this once in a lifetime long term survival possibilty scenario, AA batteries will obviously be easier to come by if my case of cr123's runs out..

 

[budynabuick]

A couple years ago I bought an 8-pack of solar-powered garden lights for the yard. This year I replaced most of the NiCd AA cells with eneloops. Nice way to charge AA cells if there's a long term outage!qUOTE


Hey Maxpower. How is this working out for you? Are you taking measurements such as how many Ma are going into your batts? per day on average?
Lets say on a less than sunny (say partly cloudy) day how much power is being put into the Eneloops from these little solar panels? Thanks.

Keith

 

[Max_Power]

A couple years ago I bought an 8-pack of solar-powered garden lights for the yard. This year I replaced most of the NiCd AA cells with eneloops. Nice way to charge AA cells if there's a long term outage

Hey Maxpower. How is this working out for you? Are you taking measurements such as how many Ma are going into your batts? per day on average?
Lets say on a less than sunny (say partly cloudy) day how much power is being put into the Eneloops from these little solar panels? Thanks.

Keith

I haven't checked that out... the solar panels are small on the single lights, probably take more than one day to get a full charge on a pair of 2000 mAh batteries (removing the batteries overnight, so they don't run the LED.)

I have another solar powered light set that runs 4 lights off of 4 AA cells and a single, much larger solar panel. That set runs most of the night after a sunny day. If I buy another garden light, that's the kind I will get.

Recently CostCo had a travelling display of "Goal Zero" solar panels. I got this:

http://www.goalzero.com/shop/p/132/Guide-10-Plus-Mobile-Kit/1:1/

Plus another kit that had the same kind of panel and a room-lighting LED lantern with a hand crank generator instead of the AA pack. Haven't tested the solar panel charge rate yet... need to run down the batteries first . I believe I can daisy chain the panels to increase the current rating.

 

[Outdoorsman5]

I've thought a lot about this subject too especially after spending 3 days without power last year. Since then I have heavily stocked up on Energizer Lithium batteries plus plenty of alkalines. I already had tons of Eneloops, and recently got more (all electronics & toys in my house are running on eneloops.) I love my 18650 lights & CR123 lights too, and have always had plenty of those around as well. I also bought a nice portable roll-up solar panel with the correct connectors so that I can charge my eneloops and/or my Li-ion batteries. I'm covered.

One hole in my system that immediately became apparent during the power outage last year was that I had no way to charge our cell phones. I recently fixed that by getting a Tekkeon TekCharge MP1580 (1000 mA) charger that uses 4 AA batteries (I use my eneloops) to charge up a phone. It's stronge enough to charge up a droid or an iphone plus it only cost $20. I'm about to go on a camping trip, and won't have to worry about my phone running out of juice.

When I go camping my two primary lights will be 18650 lights (Zebralight SC600 and an H600.) My backup will be my edc (Quark AA.) I just don't take a trip without at least one AA light. If something were to happen I'd at least be able to pick up some at most any store.

My B.O.B.'s are based on AA batteries as well.

 

[reppans]

Recently CostCo had a travelling display of "Goal Zero" solar panels. I got this:

http://www.goalzero.com/shop/p/132/Guide-10-Plus-Mobile-Kit/1:1/

FWIW, that Goal Zero battery pack is actually very nice.... it charges AAs from a USB port and provides enough juice to charge any cellphone and even the iPad. The solar panel isn't so hot though, and I have the larger Nomad 7 too. In side-by-side testing against my Powerfilm 4xAA charger (the six panel version), the GZ could only muster up 50-60% of the juice the Powerfilm can..... pretty pathetic considering the PF is about 1/3 the folded size and weight of the GZ. They both have about the same panel surface area.

 

[reppans]

One hole in my system that immediately became apparent during the power outage last year was that I had no way to charge our cell phones. I recently fixed that by getting a Tekkeon TekCharge MP1580 (1000 mA) charger that uses 4 AA batteries (I use my eneloops) to charge up a phone. It's stronge enough to charge up a droid or an iphone plus it only cost $20. I'm about to go on a camping trip, and won't have to worry about my phone running out of juice.

My B.O.B.'s are based on AA batteries as well.

I'm a AA-based guy too...

I've EDC'd an emergency phone chargers for few years and carry this iGo for my iPhone in my pants pocket. As mentioned above, I've also have been testing the Goal Zero Guide 10 Plus, and it has enough juice to charge an iPad, or pretty much anything else USB powered. Although it seems to have the same 1000 mah output your Tekkeon has, the GZ also doubles a nice USB travel charger for AAs.

 

[eh4]

Hey would it be possible to bypass the photocell that flips the garden lights on and have them just act as chargers?
Not being much of an electrical guy but the switch from charging batteries to discharging into leds probably has something to do with a photocell Not receiving light from the sky, which might make it trickier to insert a switch.
...but that would be pretty sweet.

 

[shelm]

Is this "one battery type" theory any good ?
Thanks for you input.

What exactly is the "one battery type theory"?? you havent stated the theory in clear words. i dont understand this thread or your question.

 

[eh4]

shelm the question is whether you think that you're better off standardizing with one battery type or if you're better off with a range of battery types for your devices, and maybe elaborate as to why.
the "theory" might be something like "Everything I use takes one type of battery, so I don't end up stocking/carrying too much of this type and not enough of that." "My battery type is super common and thus available everywhere." etc. etc.
There's a bunch of such answers and rationals in the replies above.
This whole forum thing is just a never ending Turing test.

 

[shelm]

thanks! ( i still dont fully understand whole sense in the OP nor the poll nor your examples. never mind. )

all i can say is how i do things in my household: all of my flashlights are single-cell flashlights and i love to be able to choose either LiIon or Eneloops (1x 10440, 1x AAA, 1x 14500, 1x AA) to put in them. my bigger torch uses 1x 18650. if i want more brightness, i use Li-ions (that's in most cases when i use my torches), but whenever i wanted to i could put in my Eneloops (or Alkalines).

so i guess i dont have any "one battery type"-theory lol

 

[budynabuick]

This is why I carry I ZL SC80. It will use any type AA or 123 battery.

Gotta get one for my self. Nice format in a light.

Keith

 

[subwoofer]

This is a bit of a repeat of this topic. There have been several threads discussing the merits of being able to use a choice of batteries, which is most likely to be found and having all your devices run on the same type.

One thread mentioned that in certain disasters in recent memory, local shops sold out of CR123s as all the emergency services use lights powered by them. Next are the D cells for the granddaddy Maglites with plenty of AAs left.

Basically you cannot rely on what shops still have in stock. When disaster happens and people panic buy, they all go. You should be able to harvest from your own resources and that means having a stock of whatever you use and better still a solar or car charger for the batteries (this is easiest for AA).

Personally I have lights that run on 9V, AAA, AA, CR123, RCR123, 18650 and have car and solar chargers for my eneloops.

 

[dragosios]

My 10 Wp solar panel embedded in one window gives me around 2Ah (winter here, not much sun). That means 24-26Wh, considering 12-13 system voltage.