I was sitting here this morning, thinking, “OK, I need a Simple Saturday change, what could I possibly do that’s easy?” Of course nothing came to mind because at this point I’ve done pretty much everything short of inhaling my own exhale and subsisting on a diet of snow.
But then — then! — something occurred to me that was so obvious, so easy, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t already done it: rechargeable batteries.
I’ve made a point already of recycling or properly disposing of my batteries, but using rechargeable ones had been on the back burner for a while, and eventually I just plain forgot about it.
I think the reason it was on the back burner to begin with was that my experience with them has never been great. They often lose their efficiency, to the point where you need to charge the things after just a few hours’ use, and then on top of that there are so many brands on the market, it’s hard to know which type to get.
This website here explains a lot — differentiating between NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) and Li-Ion (Lithium-ion, for digital cameras), then offering breakdowns of all the brands, chargers, solar options, etc. The kind I see most often in store are these GP ones, which can apparently recharge a thousand times. I can’t think of anything I’d actually need to use a thousand times, so that should be good enough.
I’ll probably get those today when I’m at Grassroots, but then I’ll need to also decide on which charging apparatus to get. Part of me wants to splurge on a solar doohickey, but then this standard universal one looks pretty decent, too. Anyone got any recommendations?
Posted by gettinggreen
