The main Types of Rechargeable Batteries are NiCd – Lead Acid – NiMH – Lithium ion. The Gel Lead Acid Battery is Termed Maintenance Free and may have to be treated differently for charging.

List of battery sizes – Wikipedia

4.5 Volt – D – C – AA – AAA – 9 Volt – SR41/AG3 – SR44/AG13

Battery Charger Circuits and Resources

Solar charger for lead-acid batteries
The charger will stop charging once a pre-set voltage (temperature compensated) has been reached, and recommence charging when the voltage has dropped off sufficiently.

12 Volt Gel Cell Charger
When a discharged gel cell is connected, the charger goes into a fast charge mode at a fixed rate of 400 ma. After the chip detects the voltage leveling off or when 4 1/2 hours has elapsed.

Temperature Controlled NiCd Charger
This circuit is for a temperature controlled constant current battery charger. It works with NICD, NIMH, and other rechargeable cells.

Battery charger 150-1700 mAh with PIC16F876
This is the extension of the simple battery charger to different battery capacities. The software and the controller are largely identical.

Rechargeable Batteries and Chargers
There are three types of rechargeable batteries. They are Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd), which are the oldest type; Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH), which were developed around the same time that low-cost digital cameras were invented.

Lead Acid Batteries Usage in Power Systems

The Lead Acid Batteries are used in Automobiles and UPS – Uninterrupted Power Supplies. Battery Banks and Arrays are used in Home and Industrial Power Systems with Solar and Wind power charging too.

These batteries have survived many other types, for rugged high power usage, even beyond 100Kva. It is all the more important for us, to learn how to use them properly. Intelligent charge controllers and charge-discharge cycle regulating managers, will ensure a long lifespan for optimum cost-effective usage of this Electro-Chemical Wonder.

A home power station is what we all should try and build on our own, Make designs that are serviceable and maintainable. Solar Power, Waste Organic fuel Power, Even Pedal power Low cost Systems need to be designed.

On the other side, switch to low power Tablet PCs, even if the power of computation is less. Use Applications that use less resources, Switch to Open Source. A HandHeld PC should not take more than 12 watts on normal usage. Use Web Applications hosted on Green Servers, here the power of computation is shared.

The wastage of power in many companies are enormous on standby. Some have many systems turned on with hardly any usage, I have seen in an office a 300 W load of a computer; turned on for a whole week, for just sending a few mails and printing a few documents. Certainly the Telex machine was eco friendly and even the electronic typewriter was sensible.

A Green solution could be New Desktop Computing Standard – The quiescent losses in this is only the wifi server cube, which can serve 6 tablets or UMPC. So if 6-12 people are using computers, many desktops need not be on. Tablets, Laptops and Notebooks consume less power and run on batteries. Thin Custom Notebook and Tablet Clients can use one OpenOffice on the WiFi Application Server cube

Custom Battery Packs, Battery Management Systems, Batteries 101, Battery Technology Encyclopaedia and Tutorial. Chargers & Charging, Battery Management and Cell Chemistries.

MPower Solutions – Battery Management

The site contains a comprehensive knowledge base about battery technology, battery applications, chargers and ancillary equipment.

MPower is an independent service company providing specialist design and manufacturing services to meet the portable power requirements of the European electronics industry.

Fuel cells have been around longer than most batteries – the principle of the fuel cell was discovered in 1839 by Sir William Grove. They generate electricity from the reaction of hydrogen with oxygen to form water in a process which is the reverse of electrolysis.

Battery and Energy Technologies

The fuel cell relies on a basic oxidation/reduction reaction, as with a battery, but the reaction takes place on the fuel rather than the electrodes. The fuel cell produces electricity as long as the cell receives a supply of fuel and can dispose of the oxidized old fuel .

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