What would you say if someone told you that reusable lithium ion batteries cost you less than single use alkaline batteries? Such an assertion may be hard to immediately accept if you've ever purchased rechargeable batteries at the store. However, it is true.
If you are a regular consumer of single-use alkaline batteries, you could be spending far too much to power your electronic devices. Charge-for-charge, USB rechargeable batteries cost much less over time. We can prove it with some simple math. Bear in mind that the numbers you read in this post are based on regular battery use.
If you look around, then you will learn that a 4-pack of AA alkaline batteries cost, on average, about $4.00. A 4-pack of our USB reusable batteries is $29.99. Let us round up to $30 for easier math.
Let's assume you purchase a pack of alkaline AA batteries every month to power your headlamp and bike computer. We can calculate your total battery cost over the course of a year by multiplying $4.00 by 12. That works out to $48.
Remember that a 4 pack of our AA batteries runs about $30. That is less than your annual outlay for alkalines. The cost for one pack of Pale Blue batteries is about 40% less than your annual cost for alkalines. You'll see your break-even in about 8 months time, and from that point on, it's nothing but savings
For the remaining 4 months of the year, you make no battery purchases and save $18. Then, you keep recharging and using your reusable batteries.
The savings don't stop there. Paleblue lithium ion batteries are good for more than 1,000 charges. At your current rate of 12 recharges per year, you should be able to use them for years, if not decades.
Every year you continue using our USB rechargeable batteries saves you $48. That's a theoretical savings of nearly $950 over the life of the rechargeable.
The long and short of it is that reusing batteries saves money and there is simply no longer a good reason to use disposable single use batteries. That is the whole point of recharging. Single-use batteries are so named because you cannot recharge them. Once fully discharged, you throw them in the garbage can (hopefully you take them to a recycling center, but that takes effort, time, and fuel) and move on. You might be spending less per set, but you end up spending more by purchasing more.
Have you ever known a friend who goes shopping just because there's a sale? That person will gush over how much money was saved, but reality says otherwise. Money was still spent on items that would otherwise not have been purchased. As such, the savings aren't real.
We see reusable batteries in much the same way. You might be saving at the cash register by purchasing single-use alkaline batteries. But over a longer timespan, those savings evaporate. A monthly purchaser of alkaline batteries will break even with reusables in 8 to 9 months. After that, real savings are the result of not continuously buying single-use batteries.
