Rechargeable Batteries to Save Energy and Money

With all of the remote controls, digital clocks, computer keyboards, flashlights, electronic toys and other battery-operated gadgets in your house, how many batteries do you go through in a year? If you want to save money in the long run—and create a lot less waste—consider rechargeables, which are both cheaper and more convenient than you might think.

Rechargeable batteries use a similar technology as the one that’s in your smartphone, laptop, or tablet—they just happen to be shaped like your regular old alkaline AA and AAAs and can be used in your usual devices. They’re not particularly slow to charge, but you still might want to have a couple sets on hand so you can quickly replace drained batteries in your remote control and other gadgets with ones that are freshly charged.

Rechargeable batteries are more expensive per battery than traditional alkalines, but not once you take into consideration that you can reuse many of them up to a thousand times. That means that a pack of 8, 12, or 16 rechargeables is actually more like a pack of 800, 1200 and 1600. That’s a lot of batteries.

Most rechargeable batteries can be recharged between 500 to 1,000 times. But some higher-end brands may last twice as long. Folks whose main goal for switching to rechargeables is to cut down on waste may want to consider extended life batteries.