Battery Selection Charts

Electric torches, watches, pocket calculators, toys and personal stereos, they all need a particular type of battery to do their job. In some cases, it is surprisingly hard to find fresh ones when the original batteries are exhausted. Fortunately, battery manufacturers offer help — via the web.Batteries — you can’t seem to avoid them in electrical or electronic equipment that’s not connected to the mains. Increasingly, people will want to go ‘mobile’ and use as much equipment as possible on the road, without having to plug into the mains for power. Fortunately, notebooks, mobile telephones and lots of other equipment contain batteries that can be topped up many times over. In some equipment, however, rechargeable batteries make little or no sense. For example, if you have a portable radio that’s only used occasionally, you’re better off using a set of alkaline batteries than any type of rechargeable battery, simply because the latter would be empty (due to self-discharging) after a few months even if the radio is not used at all. By contrast, a good battery will last several years!