Batteries are literally everywhere. There are so many battery-powered devices now on the market that listing them all would be an impossible task. To say that batteries have changed the world is like saying the sky is blue. Everybody knows it. But perhaps not everyone truly appreciates how valuable batteries are.
Batteries are fairly simple from a mechanical standpoint, according to the folks behind Pale Blue Earth’s USB rechargeable batteries. A battery stores potential energy that gets converted into electricity on discharge. All you need is an anode, a cathode, an electrolyte, and a chemical to start the electricity-generating reaction. Put them all together in the right way and you have a battery.
What types of battery-powered devices do you use? The remainder of this post talks about some of the more common devices, which we have divided into categories.
Digital Devices
The first category is that of digital devices. It tops the list because it is the one that we are all intimately familiar with. Digital devices are those consumer electronics we rely on to conduct our daily lives. They include:
- Cell Phones – Admit it, you use your cell phone more frequently than you want people to believe. You use it for everything from communicating with friends to playing silly games.
- Music Players – Some of us prefer separate music players rather than using our phones. Those tiny musical devices run on lithium-ion batteries.
- Remote Controls – You have at least several remote controls for your TV, sound system, streaming device, etc. Some utilize button batteries. Others work with more common form factors like AA and AAA.
If you are like most people, you can think of at least half-a-dozen digital devices you use on a regular basis. But why stop there? Let us move on to the next category.
Kitchen and Bath
Battery-powered devices in the kitchen and bathroom category are almost as common as digital devices. How many of the following do you have?
- Electric Knife – The electric knife used to be a staple of the American kitchen. Fewer people have them now that home cooking is less common. Nonetheless, the electric knife is a handy little tool.
- Bathroom Scale – The digital bathroom scale can run on either button batteries or AA/AAAs. But watch out. You cannot fool a digital scale any more than you can fool a mechanical one. You weigh what you weigh.
Other kitchen and bath items include electric toothbrushes, kitchen scales, razors, hair clippers, and powered cleaning brushes. Just pop the batteries in and go.
Tools (all sizes)
Hand tools and their bigger counterparts were some of the last devices to join the battery revolution. Nonetheless, they are standard fare these days. Chances are you have at least one or two of the following:
- Power Drill – The battery-powered drill is now a multipurpose device. It still performs as a drill, but it can also be used as a screwdriver, nut driver, socket wrench, and so forth.
- Saw – Any type of hand saw you could previously plug into a wall outlet can now be had in a battery-powered format. We are talking circular saws, jigsaws, saber saws, and the like.
- Yard Tools – Scaling things up, your battery-powered inventory could include a full range of yard pools. Perhaps you have a battery-powered lawnmower or snowblower. You can buy leaf blowers, edge tremors, and electric clippers all powered by lithium-ion batteries.
What types of battery-powered devices do you own? We all use them, and we all love them. Life would be a whole lot different if it were not for batteries.
