111–120 of 181 posts
Eneloops are fantastic. I've been using them for 10 years. They have very low self discharge so you can keep them on the shelf for a year and they will still have 70% charge which is very different to most rechargeable batteries. They don't leak unlike alkaline batteries and you can run them to 0% charge without damaging them unlike Lion batteries. The terminal voltage is only 1.2v so there is the occasional thing th…
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Thanks, and to the other guys. But I am asking about a remote wireless thermostat. How does it know to talk to my boiler, and not her next door's? As I said totally OT, and I do have a couple of good C/H firms I can get in to sort it.
Sounds like an awful idea in general. Think KISS concept. But you'd have to look at manuals. There's probably no single answer. (I was thinking of wireless control of the thermostat itself.) I'd add that, where I live (New England), furnace failures can be basically catastrophic so any theoretical convenience advantages just aren't worth it.
Basically, the thermostat is in a living area and you set the temperature(s) to what you want, it senses them, and then talks to the boiler (in my case in the roof-space) to heat up (or not, via radio) the water in the radiators to satisfy that. It's a feedback loop.
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Three things prevent me from eliminating all alkalines: * smoke and CO detectors with low-battery voltage sensors calibrated to alkaline * some older electronics (e.g. multimeters) using 9V batteries * my non-contact voltage tester refuses to turn on using NiMH, for safety reasons presumably
There are 9V NiMHs, too. They just need dedicated charger.
Could you possibly make a modern cell phone that runs off of rechargeable AA batteries?
How many would it take to have roughly the same amount of screen time?
ChatGPT says it's a bad idea, but roughly I'd need 10 AA batteries and a boost converter.
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I love the 14500 except for its footgun shape. 6 x 14500 is at least 21 volts, which won't play nice with a device that wanted 9 volts. I used to try to keep the 14500s far away from the AAs, but there's no stopping a kid in a hurry who wants to play with a toy or musical instrument.
I've taken the approach of electrical-taping my USB-chargeable 14500s each to a dummy-battery, since the things I put them in have 2 adjacent slots for series AAs. The voltage is still high (3.somethingV instead of 3V) but they seem to work.
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I've jump-started my share of batteries this way. Such a deep discharge might affect lifespan but it's typically old devices we do this to anyway.
Cool. I have a modern (not smart) body weight scale and it regularly ruins this way at least one of the 3 GP NiMh rechargable AAA batteries I put in it, so I wanted to hear some ideas what could be done with them given they have been through only bunch of charge cycles.
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I’m visiting some family and I’m a hero for fixing a couple devices that stopped working from alkaline batteries by using a bit of foil paper to overcome the corroded contacts. Maybe not great in the long run (steel and aluminum don’t like eachother)… maybe I should have put on some grease…
I swab the corroded contacts with white vinegar from the kitchen. It turns the white gunk into a foamy blob, and I assume it etches off enough of the corrosion to restore conductivity. I wipe the foamy part with the dry side of the cotton swab, and the device usually works again. I started doing this as a kid, reasoning that the white gunk looked like baking soda, which is fun to combine with vinegar, so let's see wh…
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Sounds like an awful idea in general. Think KISS concept. But you'd have to look at manuals. There's probably no single answer. (I was thinking of wireless control of the thermostat itself.) I'd add that, where I live (New England), furnace failures can be basically catastrophic so any theoretical convenience advantages just aren't worth it.
Wireless thermostats are really common in the UK. I don't know about elsewhere. I'm interested how they pair (like Bluetooth) with the boiler. Basically, the thermostat is in a living area and you set the temperature(s) to what you want, it senses them, and then talks to the boiler (in my case in the roof-space) to heat up (or not, via radio) the water in the radiators to satisfy that. It's a feedback loop.
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You can now find 1.5V Li-on AA batteries with, and that's a game changer, built-in charger and a type-C port! I have one in my wireless mouse. If it dies, I change it to a spare and charge it right from my laptop (and the battery that was empty becomes the spare)
Came here to post this. I'm 100% agreed with Mr. Geerling. For a fun challenge try to find a non-built-in-battery arc lighter (eg: candles, grills, etc). When I found one I bought four (think camping/disaster bag... if everything is AA/AAA then having a shelf-stable fire starter is easier/safer than lighter fluid). For a fun sidebar check out the "Panasonic BQ-CC87AKBBA" which is effectively a combo "in/out" battery…
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No, there's basically no reason you'd ever want an alkaline battery except cost. For your use case of long-term storage or a rarely used flashlight (e.g. in a car emergency kit), you'd want a Li/FeS2 as the parent poster recommended, also called just a "Lithium" primary (i.e. non-rechargable) cell. They have a longer shelf life, don't leak, hold more energy, can provide a higher discharge current, work over a wider t…
There are a handful of applications where alkalines are better. IR TV remotes run effectively forever on a couple of batteries and the slow self discharge on the alkalines makes them ideal for the task.