Interesting thoughts on Batteries.

I have been toying with Solar Charger Designs lately and it got me thinking about the types of batteries I can charge with it and their lifespan in storage...   For example, in my backpacking kit, I want to have rechargeable batteries to supplement my Lithium emergency batteries.    I would rather use a rechargeable battery instead of a single use but long term storage battery, so What do I do?    Current rechargeable batteries require a special charger and must be kept charged or they are destroyed.   I don't want to have to haul out the backpack monthly to recharge the batteries, that is a huge inconvenience.  It turns out that the old batteries, NiCad rechargeable, are designed to be stored dead for years at a time.  They only need to be charged up when you need to use them.   This is perfect!   I can use the Lithium emergency batteries for my right away needs, and then charge the NiCads with the solar charger every day.

For the backpacker, or even the person that wants a bug out bag,  your choice is clear for portable power.   Solar charger, NiCad batteries, and some Lithium batteries.  All will store for a decade without any worry about them going bad.  That way when you need that flashlight, it will light up, and you can charge the nicads in case you are stuck out in the wild longer than the lithium batteries will last.

I am still trying to standardize on the AA battery in my backpacks..  I am having trouble finding good LED flashlights that use AA batteries and FRS radios that also use AA.   For some reason everything is using AAA batteries, and those have less than 1/2 the energy storage that AA has.  I want one type of battery to power all of my devices.   Also my search for an ebook reader that uses AA batteries is still ongoing.   It would be nice to have a digital repository of books in the backpack that also runs off of the same rechargeable power source.