Battery Consumptions

[Jon Lawton]

While I agree that charge/discharge cycles do impact the life of a battery, I'd argue that how you charge and discharge the cells matters more.

If you charge too fast (or too long on a charger that doesn't know when to stop), you'll boil off the water in them. Once that happens, the battery, she is dead. Unsealed Lead-Acid batteries are cooler (pun not intended) in this regard. You simply add more distilled water, and the battery works again (I own an electric car with 16 deep-cycle unsealed Lead-Acids).

The documentation on the battery should list the maximum charge power, and the chargers that FIRST gives us charge at a reasonable rate (IMO). In terms of envrionmental concerns, I believe that Lead-Acids have wide-spread recycling programs. There are a number of threads on here that discuss at length all kinds of battery woe, you might want to check those out if you haven't already.

In terms of lighter batteries, I think it would be hard to beat the Power VS Weight of the Lithium Ion type. I have no idea what recycling for these is like. Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) is also light, but takes a lot longer to charge than Li-Ion. Nickel-Cadmium batteries have been around forever, and are great if you want to get the power out of them in a *HURRY*. (Short across a small one with two wires, and watch them glow red). I think these are recycled, but people often complain about some kind of "memory effect". FIRST used to use these. Anyways... just some ideas. Hope they are of some use.