Be efficient with battery-charged equipment
Business people in Australia use rechargeable batteries every day. It’s what keeps our mobile phones, portable phones, laptops, digital cameras and tablets alive.
Over 15 million products with battery chargers are sold in Australia every year.[1] With the increasing business usage of laptops, tablets and smartphones, battery use will also increase.
When recharging this equipment, unplug it after it is fully charged. Some rechargers can still use power after the equipment battery has been fully charged.
How much money could be saved with battery recharging?
A 2013 government report stated that energy efficiency improvements in battery chargers could save Australians over a billion dollars over 10 years.[2] With over 75 million battery recharger systems around Australia currently in use, it makes sense to be as efficient as possible in this area.
To find out more about maximising energy efficiency for battery chargers, visit EnergyCut.info/e3-battery-chargers, visit EnergyCut.info/E3-battery-chargers.
Linfox, VIC
Forklift batteries are not cheap. As such, it makes sense to maximise their service life.
At Linfox, forklift trucks use deep-cycle batteries that do not need to be recharged until they reach 80% depth of discharge. However, at the end of each shift, some sites used to ‘shallow charge’ before they reached this level.
‘Shallow charging’ these type of batteries can reduce their service life. As part of the company’s LeanFox efficiency initiative, forklifts are now operated until they are at maximum discharge and charged using a forklift battery charging system.
The battery recharging system also takes advantage of less expensive ‘off-peak’ power.[3]
Buying rechargeable batteries
It makes financial sense to buy rechargeable batteries for office-based devices as some can be recharged up to 1,000 times. This can save you a significant amount of money on the purchase costs of single-use batteries. They can also be very convenient – some batteries can now be recharged in as little as 15 minutes.
As with all types of recharging, make sure that you turn off your battery charger at the plug when the batteries are fully charged. This prevents it using unnecessary power.
- 1. Page 3 E3 Product Profile Battery Chargers – EnergyCut.info/E3-battery-chargers
- 2. EnergyCut.info/E3-battery-charger (page 4).
- 3. Source: Linfox