The care and feeding of Batteries

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One of the growing environmental menaces is the increasingly widespread use of rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries are not intrinsically bad for the environment, but they have insidious side-effects.

Look at the chain that brings energy to your device:

1. The Power Company converts either chemical or nuclear energy: uranium, coal, gas, or oil, into electricity.
2. The electricity is piped (along wires) to your home.
3. You connect to the grid, and a battery-charger charges up your battery.
4. The charged battery powers your device.
5. Eventually, you throw the battery in the trash.

In principle, of course, you're not supposed to do (5): throw the battery in the trash.  You're supposed to give the battery to the store where you bought it, or in enlightened states, to some collection center.  If all goes well, the store or the collection agency will carefully recycle the battery.  If all does not go well, and some a*&%$#@ is in charge of the operation, they will throw your battery in the trash, so your eyes will not be hurt by the sight.

This is the weakest link in the environment-related chain of battery-use (for the moment disregarding the poisonous materials used in rechargeable batteries and their manufacture): the fact that today, because of the influence of fiscal conservatives who insist that all government operations should be cost-effective, the local government will only use proper recycling procedures if it is inexpensive.  (Often the operation is outsourced to a private contractor, who has to make a profit.)

The best approach to this, given that you're not going to give up your cordless devices, is to baby your batteries as much as possible, uncompromisingly using whatever techniques are available for making the batteries deliver as much power as possible for as long as possible.  If everybody thought of babying their rechargeable devices as saving money (almost the only way to sell the idea to fiscal conservatives), you might be able to influence quite a lot of people to prolong the lives of their batteries, from laptop battery-packs to cameras, to mp3-players and phones.  (And stop thinking of phones as disposable consumer items; I haven't gone into it, but I'm sure, taking the total cost of trashing a phone into account, that they are a significant burden on the environment.)

I surfed the Web conscientiously, aware of the possibility that my readers might take what I said uncritically, and not pursue their own verification of the facts.  One of the most interesting articles I found was the very first, unfortunately written by what appears to be a non-native English speaker, (or one who was ineptly home-schooled), and whose writing mechanics did not come close to matching the muscularity of his information.  (Do read it; it is from the Battery Barn.)

Mx Battery Barn sets out his or her information very tidily.  There are several types of batteries, and each has its own characteristics.  A while later, I encountered what looks to be the most informed summary of the information I'm seeking to present here, by a gentleman who says that he is a Swiss immigrant currently living in Canada, and whose present occupation appears to be in the battery service industry.  In the article Batteries in a Portable World, the author, Isidore Buchmann, gives more detailed and technical information about the characteristics of the various battery types.  That's probably where you should look, for the reasons behind the recommendations.

Alkaline Batteries of the Nickel-Cadmium type

These were among the earliest consumer rechargeable batteries.  These must be completely charged once you get them (or the device that has them built-in, such as my electric toothbrush), and then used until they're completely drained, and then completely recharged, several times.

Apparently, unless you completely drain them from the word go, they cannot be subsequently used below the level at which you recharged them.  This is affectionately called the "memory problem"; it is as if when you use the battery down to, say, 70%, and then recharge it, it forgets that it can go all the way down to 0%, and ever after, only goes down to 70%.  (Once it's down to 70% charge, it thinks it's completely drained, and refuses to supply power.  In effect you've lost that 70% that you didn't use the first time.)

Many consumers vaguely remember having heard of something like this with their cordless drill, for instance, but unfortunately, they assume that the same is true for their laptop.  Nothing can be further from the truth.

Lithium-Ion Batteries

Laptops, in contrast to (most) power drills, use the lighter Lithium-Ion Batteries.  These do not have the so-called "memory problem" described above; you can use them lightly, and charge them up.  What they do not like (by which I mean the condition that makes them degenerate rapidly, for chemical reasons) is to be stored in a discharged condition.  For maximum life, therefore, you should use your laptop while it is plugged in, or keep it plugged in while not using it, and charge it back up after using it on the battery at the earliest opportunity.  I haven't actually read this anywhere, but it is my belief that the same goes for cell phones.  I have started plugging my cell phone in every chance I get, especially at home.

Note: apparently, some battery chargers have a 'discharge' switch, ostensibly to help discharge Nickel-Cadmium batteries which, having the "memory problem", need to be reminded of their full capacity by being discharged all the way.  I haven't owned this type of battery charger, so I can only guess.  Mx Battery Barn explicitly and repeatedly warns us not to do this for Lithium Ion batteries.  (It is endearing to see the vehemence with which this exhortation is issued, and persuades me that Battery Barn's evangelical manner comes from very deep-held convictions, ideally stemming from an environmental concern, or at any rate, a deep love of batteries in general.  What a wonderful world we live in.)

There are other sorts of batteries, of course: the lowly Lead-Acid car batteries we hardly notice, and Nickel Metal-Hydride batteries, which are a significant improvement over the older Nickel-Cadmium batteries, not least because they don't contain Cadmium, and so do not constitute a heavy-metal threat to landfills.  Unfortunately, I believe, they contain trace elements of Mercury, but I could be completely off-base.  You should check the matter out carefully.

Lead-Acid batteries, too, have specific needs in their use patterns, but as Battery Barn points out, the way we use them normally discharges and re-charges them perfectly, so that they last longer than any other battery type.

Heat is an enemy of all battery types

Everyone knows this, but we forget.  Do not let your laptop overheat; keep it where it can suck in cool air from wherever its air intakes are: usually under the laptop (i.e., your lap), or on one of the sides, and keep the outflow grills unobstructed.  A cool laptop lasts much longer, because the circuits, the hard drive (which has to spin almost constantly, and spinning things need to get rid of their heat), and the battery all need to be cool.

The same goes for your cell phone.  Keeping it close to your heart is probably bad for the battery, and not particularly good for your heart.  Put it on some cool surface when you're settling down for a while, but of course, you must remember to pick it up again.

A systemic, "million-dollar" problem with the cell-phone battery market

Mr Bachmann outlines a pattern in cell-phone battery supply and return which, he claims, constitutes a million-dollar loss for all parties.  It has to do with the conflict between the characteristics of these batteries, and the flow of consumer-rejected batteries to the manufacturer.  This problem leads one to surmise that batteries, speaking generally, are a major econo-environmental problem, and even if it doesn't deserve immediate attention, will soon become so.  Unfortunately, for the reasons I have given above having to do with fiscal conservatism and state and local policy, a problem must become acute before state and local representatives will risk political capital in addressing it, especially since many of these people are career politicians, and hold office not for altruistic reasons, but as their principal income.