I see by the note on the refrigerator that its time to buy more batteries. For the longest time I’ve tried to standardize batteries. The commonly used sizes are AAA, AA, D and 9v (which probably do have a letter designation…Im just not feeling its particularly necessary at the moment). Theres also those nifty little lithium batts which are, I believe, designated CR123. (And, yeah, theres the AAAA and other size batts but the operative word here is ‘commonly’.)

I have tried to streamline my battery needs to just ‘D’ and ‘AA’. There are things in the house, such as tv remotes and smoke detectors, that run on different sized batts but for the preparedness stuff I try to limit it to those two sizes. (The one glaring exception is the damn Seismic Intrusion Detectors which run on 9v. but I could always rig something up, I suppose…) Makes it easier to store spares and allows more interchangeability if I have to ‘borrow’ batteries from one device to run another. (Which has happened…a few months back I discovered my GPS batts were dead and I took the 4 AA’s outta my Streamlight. Since then, I carry six spare AA batts in my bag. An empty Altoids tin, lined with bubble wrap, holds six spare AA batts securely. The bubble wrap keeps em quiet and keeps em from grounding out on the metal case.)

Unfortunately, my perfect world of Only Two Battery Sizes has been disrupted by the need for the lithium CR123’s to power me and the girlfriends tactical lights. On the bright side, they don’t need replacing that often since they are infrequently used and the spares will keep a nice long time.

I’ve been very taken with the lithium AA’s and use them in my GPS and radios. Flashlights get along just fine on run of the mill Duracells. (Esp. with the LED models of lights that have lower power requirements.) Being much more tolerant of extreme temperatures, they are an excellent choice for flashlights that youre going to leave in your truck all summer/winter. Lithium 9v can be found at Home Depot for use in smoke detectors. Still having difficulty finding lithium D’s anywhere but online. And, yeah, theyre spendy but they have a shelf life of ten years with minimal power loss and can handle being left in a glove compartment all winter…that’s worth it to me.

I’ve been buying Duracell AA and D batteries up at Costco in 36 and 24 packs, respectively. I try to keep at least one or two packages on hand at all times and as I go through batteries, I use up the stored ones. In this way they get rotated out and I always have at least one pack of reasonably fresh ones available.

Rechargeables are, of course, an option. Rechargeables, however, are only a good idea when you have a means to recharge them and most circumstances when Im likely to be going through batteries are circumstances where electricity is probably not available. Fortunately the internet is full of DIY solar battery charging plans and these are in the future at some point. Then again, I’ve got several Baygen radios and lights stocked away as well so battery recharging is a fairly low priority. For extended power loss situations its worth getting into, but for the short term (less than a week) I figure Im served with a couple dozen extras.

There are also, by the way, battery ‘inserts’ that let you use a smaller size battery in your gear. They let you use C in a D, AA in a C, etc, etc. Usefull for when youre scrounging batteries but a simple grasp of basic electronics tells you that some wire and electrical tape will let you rig any AA, C, D or 9v. device to run off different batteries.

Fortunately, most of the really cool toys run on AA or D…big MagLites, MiniMags, FRS radios, portable AM/FM radios, etc, etc. The small Photon microlights run on small ‘coin’ batteries but I’ve yet to actually run down the battery in one. At $5 per light its almost cheaper to just have extra lights rather than extra batteries for it. On the other hand, I could always cannibalize batteries for it out of a digital watch.

So, if you’ve got a handful of ‘essential’ electronic gizmos that run on batteries you might wanna think about getting them all on board in the battery compatability department.