Can you name one thing that makes the world so connected and functional? It’s the batteries. Imagine if there were no batteries in the world. No mobile phones. No laptops. No cars. No torches, no remote controls, no toys, no portable music players, no digital cameras, no gadgets and you are imagining that’s end of the world. Aren’t you? We all need different devices which need different sources of power. Here some of the most common batteries available are discussed below which will help you get more life out of these

LITHIUM ION
If you have a lithium ion battery in your camera or mobile phone, you can be sure it will work no matter where you are, these batteries are hugely popular with manufacturers of portable electronic devices. They can last up to 10 years and recharge within the instrument. But such performance comes at a high price, plus L-ion cells are invariably product and model specific.

POPULAR PENCIL CELLS
These are good for your average made in China plastic toys as there’s no heavy power drain. They can be used to some effect in remote controls, small flashlights, toys and transistor radios. There are also zinc-chloride batteries, which claim to have a slightly longer life. The huge disadvantage of these cheap batteries is that they are likely to leak, and acid in your remote control or torch is hardly likely to improve performance.

ALKALINE BATTERIES
These are also disposable batteries, but the huge advantage is that you can reuse them to an extent. For instance, the power in these cells might no longer be sufficient for your digicam, but there’s still enough juice to run low-drain devices such as remote controls and some toys.
 
PRECIOUS BUTTONS
Button cells, otherwise called silver oxide batteries, have an extremely long life. These batteries are available only as button cells, where the amount of silver used is minuscule. These cells are commonly used in watches, hearing aids and calculators.
 
RECHARGABLE BATTERIES
Many electronic devices work off the power generated by the standard AA or AAA size batteries. The problem is that you end up replacing the batteries with alarming frequency spending a fortune on them and damaging the environment so try rechargeable ones. The most popular are nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries. There are also alkaline rechargeable available, but these are best suited for gadgets such as remote controls or torches that are used infrequently.

TO INCREASE BATTERY LIFE
Never, ever mix batteries just because they look to be the same size. Always use all alkaline, NiMH or NiCds. When a device that takes two or more batteries stops working, it’s more than likely that only one of the batteries is fully exhausted. The others probably have some power left in them. Use the batteries which have some power left in low power consuming products like clocks and remote controls. Use the right type of battery as the effective capacity of a battery changes depending on the power drain.