Most devices & gadgets are rechargeable nowadays. The only thing I have that still requires batteries is a headlamp but even those are available in rechargeable varieties. House smoke detectors need a battery too.
Most devices & gadgets are rechargeable nowadays. The only thing I have that still requires batteries is a headlamp but even those are available in rechargeable varieties. House smoke detectors need a battery too.
No. Primary cells are easy and cheap to manufacture, and hold much more charge than rechargeable equivalents.
And so much of everyday tech is already built around the form factor and voltage. You cannot change one without also changing the other. While I’m sure some battery sizes will go away with time, as some already have (Type B, anyone?), I’m willing to bet AA batteries will still be around in some form 100 years from now. Internals might change a little, and capacity might increase, but we’re still going to see 1.5V packed into those dimensions.
This is half-true at best. Consider these tests of an alkaline primary, lithium primary, and NiMH rechargeable AA battery.
The alkaline has more energy than the NiMH at 0.1A load, but not above that. It will last longer in something like a TV remote or wall clock, but not in something like a flashlight with even moderate output or anything with a motor. Low-self-discharge NiMH, which has better shelf life beats alkaline once the load reaches 0.5A, which represents a device that will drain the battery in 4 hours of continuous use. Lithium primaries win the benchmark here until reaching a very heavy 3A load, but they cost as much as NiMH and only work once.
Allow a different voltage range in the same form factor and lithium-ion rechargeable 14500 cells now equal or slightly exceed the 5Wh capacity of lithium primary AA.
You can’t just mix and match battery chemistry and call one superior. If you could, they’d all be inferior to a nuclear reactor in the right packaging anyway. But since you absolutely have to be pedantic about it, I’ll make this revision specially for you with emphasis in the right place:
And you can’t just allow for different voltage ranges without all the electronics also being adjusted for that.