Filed under: FAQ by Kel |
How much power do you use to recharge high powered Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries?
Charging a set of four 2500mAh batteries with a Maha PowerEx 401FS charger (on soft charge at 300mA charge rate) should take about 9 hours. 300mA at 12V is 3.6 watts of power. To charge for 9 hours at 3.6 watts, that’s 32.4 watthours. At a price of fifteen cents per kilowatt hour, the cost is 32.4/1000 x 15 cents, or 0.48 cents to charge the batteries. Even if the efficiency of the chager was only 50%, the cost would be 0.96 cents to charge the four batteries.
So if you recharge your batteies once every week, the cost is 0.96 cents x 52 weeks, or 50 cents for the whole year.
That’s low cost battery power!
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Filed under: FAQ by Kel |
You can recharge most high capacity NiMH batteries in a Maha battery charger.
Shown above is my Maha MH-801D charging some old Energizer 2500mAh AA and Powertech 800mAh AAA batteries.
Battery technologies have come a long way in just a few years, and continue to improve. A few years ago, the highest capacity AA battery was a 1800mAh NiMH. Before that they were 600mAh NiCD’s. Today we have 2700mAh NiMH AA’s, and tomorrow, who knows?
If you have some old rechargeable batteries you still want to use, then be aware that their ability to take charge from a rapid charger is limited, be it a Maha charger or any other brand. As a rule, AA batteries over 2000mAh and AAA batteries over 700mAh are fine in Maha rapid chargers. To recharge older cells, you are best to choose a charger with a slow option, such as the 5 hour charge of a MH-C401FS or the MH-C801D and not the MH-C204W travel charger.
Low discharge batteries such as Sanyo Eneloop and Powerex Imedions are also 100% compatible with Maha Powerex chargers.
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