Can Rechargeable Batteries Save You Money?

Rechargeable Batteries Provide Electrifying Savings

Kids and all of their toys and gear can use up a dry cell battery faster than most moms can say "turn off that Xbox and do your homework." According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's web site, Americans purchase nearly three billion dry-cell batteries every year to power products like cell phones, toys, lap top computers, tools and portable radios. The vast majority of these purchases are single use batteries. If you want to be a frugal consumer, be aware that one battery that is rechargeable can substitute for hundreds of single use batteries.

One Rechargeable May Save Up To $500 Over Its Life Span

So let's do a little math to see how much you can save by using rechargeables.  As of this writing you can buy a regular, name brand AA alkaline battery in a bulk pack at Sam's Club for about $1 a battery. You can buy a rechargeable AA battery at Sam's Club in a bulk pack for around $3 a battery. If we use estimates previously published from Uniross, a rechargeable battery maker, we can assume that each rechargeable lasts the life of 500 single use batteries. This means that each rechargeable AA battery you use instead of a disposable battery may save you $497 over the life span of the rechargeable battery.

Or to put it mathematically:

500 single use AA batteries @ $1 each = $500

1 rechargeable battery @ $3 = $3

Difference = $497 savings

Return on your $3 investment: 16,566.67%

Kind of beats putting the money into CDs, doesn't it?

If you live in state with a high sales tax, the savings are even greater. Sales tax on $500 worth of disposable batteries in a location with a 9% sales tax would be another $45.00, while the tax on the $3 rechargeable battery would be 27 cents, for an additional savings of $44.73.

Please note that these calculations do not include the cost of the battery charger, which would be a small one time expense for the first year. You can buy an inexpensive battery charger from Amazon or Sam's Club for about $10 - $15. You only need one charger for all of your rechargeable batteries, so this cost is pretty nominal on a per battery basis.

Good For Your Wallet, Good for the Environment

As an added environmental benefit, by using rechargeables in every appliance where it is practical and properly recycling them, over your lifetime you will be keeping thousands of single use batteries out of landfills.

We still use single use batteries in our smoke detectors because they last longer than one charge life of a rechargeable battery. No one wants to risk having a smoke detector lose power, so this is one are where you don't want to be penny wise and pound foolish. However, since we've never had a catastrophic Xbox controller failure at our house (at least not from my perspective), devices like these are perfect for utilizing rechargeables.

Some people also recommend single use batteries in emergency flashlights where there may be a long period of time between uses.  I solved this problem at our house by purchasing power failure nightlights that plug into the wall outlets turn on when the power goes out. I also purchased several wind up flashlights to keep around the house.  So now when we have a power failure at night the emergency nightlights turn on automatically, which gives us just enough light to stumble through our house trying to remember where we last left the wind up flashlights.