If you are like most people, you don't spend a whole lot of time pondering the number of devices you own that run on battery power. Batteries are so commonplace in the 21st century that it is easy to take them for granted. But imagine what life was like when batteries were still new. People were fully aware of every battery-powered device they owned.
It might be an interesting exercise for you to do an inventory of your house to see just how many battery-powered devices you own. We would bet that you own a lot more than you actually realize. To get you started, we have put together a list of common devices found in nearly every home. Some utilize pre-installed hard-wired batteries while others make use of removable batteries.
How could we put together a list like this and not start with the cell phone? The cell phone is so ubiquitous in this day and age that it's nearly impossible to find people who don't own one – at least in developed nations. We take our phones everywhere. We use them to do everything from messaging to making dinner reservations.
Cell phones these days are powered by lithium-ion batteries. Some models still offer removable batteries while others have batteries that are hard-wired. Did you know there used to be a cell phone that ran on alkaline batteries? That was a long time ago, and the phone wasn't very efficient.
Wireless game controllers are commonplace with most of your brand-name consoles. These days, manufacturers are trending toward hard-wired batteries for their controllers. Yet there are a few who continue to opt for removable batteries. For our money, your best bet for removable battery models are USB rechargeable batteries from Paleblue. Our batteries offer superior performance and up to a thousand charges.
Like batteries themselves, flashlights are easy to forget about until you actually need one. When a storm is raging and the power goes out, a flashlight suddenly becomes one of your most important commodities. As for their batteries, few flashlights have hard-wired cells. Most utilize removable batteries. And once again, USB rechargeable batteries are your best option.
If you have smoke and CO2 detectors in your home (and you should) there is a good chance they run on batteries. Some models are wired into the home's electrical system, but most sold over the counter at the hardware store are battery-powered. Incidentally, experts recommend changing smoke and CO2 detector batteries twice a year, at the same time you adjust your clocks for daylight saving time. Remember to always check the manufacturer’s specifications on what type of batteries to use, especially in any safety-related devices.
It could be that the only battery-powered device as ubiquitous as the cell phone is the remote control. If we all had a dollar for every remote-control unit we've ever owned, we'd all have quite a bit of money. Even now, you may have three or four remote controls sitting on the living room coffee table. They all run on removable batteries.
Remote controls don't draw a lot of power, which is why people think nothing of powering them with alkaline batteries. From our point of view, lithium-ion is always a better choice. You already know all the reasons why.
We could continue this list, but you get the point. A lot of us use batteries more often than we realize. Some devices do not give us a choice because the batteries are hard-wired. But for those that do give us a choice, lithium-ion USB rechargeable batteries are a better choice than disposable alkalines. You can take that to the bank.
