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The battery driven lifestyleAug 25 '06 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line The article is a guide to help you use the rechargeable battery correctly and written in the hope that it may help you save $$$'s
We all use batteries – agreed? Do we really use the batteries the right way so that its life is prolonged? Almost any equipment you buy today, be it Digital Camera, Video Camera, Mobile Phone, Laptop and like has invariably two types of power sources, AC and Battery (DC). Surely the rechargeable batteries are costly. The cost? Some time back I bought a Video Camera and had to get a spare battery since the one bundled with it was hardly going to do the job especially outdoors with just one-hour capacity. The price of the spare battery only was a whooping 25% of the cost of the camera. The battery I chose would give me a good 600 minutes of charge, which really means 10 hours of shooting. I am referring to the high capacity battery as I also had the option to go for a lesser capacity at about 18% of the cost of camera and lasting about 350 minutes (a little less than 6 hours). The point I am trying to make here is we all spend a lot of money on batteries these days and therefore there is a need to care for them. We cannot escape from having to spend money on batteries these days as it has become part and parcel of the lifestyle we have now. Just count the number of things in your household today and see the real number of batteries you own. Many of them you would be replacing as the equipment is a lot more costly than the battery itself. Knowing how to care for the rechargeable batteries will help you prolong the life of batteries so that you can derive full potential from them. I have compiled a few pointers for the benefit of the readers in the hope that they may find it useful and in the process save some $$$ for themselves. INITIAL CHARGE Brand new batteries will not give their full potential until they go through at least 4-5 cycles of charge and discharge. Once this is achieved you should be able to get their full potential and time will correspond to the time it should last as stated by the manufacturer. CHARGE/DISCHARGE CYCLES A lithium-ion battery has the capacity of approx 300 to 500 discharge/charge cycles. This type of battery should not be subjected to full discharge on a regular basis before charging. If you feel you are charging too often you may consider a higher capacity battery for your needs. CALIBRATING THE BATTERY Litium-ion batteries are generally not prone to memory effect however they need to be calibrated from time to time to give a more accurate indication in the equipment about their charge status. Frequent short charge/recharge cycles renders them to go out of calibration. It is a good idea to use the battery fully till the equipment stops working and charge the battery fully. This complete cycle once every 25-30 charges will help calibrate it and give correct indication in the equipment in use. Laptop manuals generally give you give kind of guidance in their manuals, IBM Thinkpad manual does give this kind of advise in their manual. DEEP DISCHARGE I had a bad experience sometime back when I left the rechargeable battery in the camera after a session. The battery had actually almost finished before the camera was stored, the camera continues to drain the battery even if it is switched off that is why it is prudent on your part to remove it if the equipment is not going to be used for prolonged period of times. I did not (being forgetful) and this resulted in deep discharge of the battery. Next time I tried charging it, it would not and had to discard it. $40 down the drain. CAPACITY LOSS Rechargeable batteries tend to loose about 1 percent of their capacity a month. This is normal. If the batteries are stored fully discharged for long periods it may be difficult to revive them and charge them since they go into a state which is known as “deep discharge”. This was the problem I had. Therefore, it is a good idea to store batteries which have about 30-40 percent charge still left. The reserve charge is required by the protection circuit to be operational during prolonged storage. Always store the batteries in a cool and dry place, 20 Deg C would be ideal temperature. EFFECT AT HIGH TEMPERATURES High temperatures when the batteries are in use is also not good for them. For instance, many use the laptop with the batteries fully charged from the AC power, this raises the temperature of the batteries and is the main cause of irreversible capacity loss. LIFE OF RECARGEABLES Lithium based batteries will last 2-3 years on average ( provided you do not charge and discharge fully everyday). The clock starts ticking the moment they come off the assembly lines. If you notice, they come charged with the laptops even though the guidelines from the manufacturer states that you should first fully charge the battery before use. Use good quality batteries from known brands; they may tend to be expensive but better for the equipment in the long run. Thank you for dropping by and reading what I write. All Text Copyright Quadophile 2006  |
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