Rechargable batteries

Several years ago, I recognized my children would probably use a lot of batteries in various devices to power their toys, and we would also need batteries for toothbrushes, flashlights, and other things. I knew that rechargeable batteries could conceivably save a lot of money, but my personal history up to that point with a few different attempts to go rechargeable had been unsuccessful.

This time, armed with the power of the internet and a willingness to invest in a good system that would hopefully pay off with thousands in savings over the coming decades, I set out to find and acquire batteries that would finally live up to the promise of consistently recharging and lasting a long time between charges. Years later, I am declaring success.

The batteries I chose are Eneloops from Sanyo. I bought over a dozen AA batteries. We've used them in a toy train, our Canon Powershot A480 camera, Oral-B Crossaction toothbrushes, Nintendo Wii controllers, and a few other toys the kids have had.

To this day, we've never had any of the batteries discharge more quickly than conventional batteries that you buy and throw away, unlike the silver Energizer rechargeable batteries I'd previously bought at Sam's Club, which discharge very quickly.  The Eneloops are supposed to hold a usable charge for up 3 years. This makes them perfect for using in devices that are only used a little at a time and that you don't want to have to think about the batteries on a regular basis.

To give you a good idea of how long these batteries last, we have gotten about 70 shots over the course of a couple of months from the Powershot camera. The toothbrushes only need to have the single AA battery charged every couple of months.

For charging your batteries, I cannot recommend highly enough the Maha MH-C401FS. We've had ours for years, and it works excellently. The slow charge mode keeps the temperature down, and that's an important part of keeping your batteries in good condition. It's important that your battery charger is capable of charging each battery independently, like the MD-C401FS. If you get one that isn't capable of this, then the charger will charge the battery with the highest charge to full, and the other battery will only get the same amount of charging, even if it started out at a much lower charge level. Thus, your battery might seem to have a lower charge level because one of the two batteries runs out of power. With the Maha, it will charge each battery over the 90% charge level regardless of the initial discharge amount. This is an investment that will protect your battery investment for years.

If you have a need for C or D size batteries, you can find spacers that you insert the AA battery into, and then use the AA batteries to power your devices that need larger sized batteries.

Eneloop AA or AAA batteries are available for 2.50 - 3.00 per battery, if you are patient and wait for a good price, but they are good for a thousand recharges and last for years.

The Cost of Connection

If I asked you what you spend every month on communication and data services, could you answer how much you spend? I'm talking telephone, whether you have land line, mobile or both, television (cable, satellite, or over the air) and Internet. Do you wonder "Am I paying too much for what I get?"

Maybe you're like me, and you look at the cost of cable, and you feel like you are going to swoon? Or the monthly price of a cell phone, not to mention a second line and optional data plan.

What options you have available to you depends on where you live. For instance, at both our previous house and current, we lived outside of area where DSL Internet was available, meaning we knew we would be paying for cable Internet. Before we moved, we were paying $68 for a higher tier Internet connection with basic cable, plus $28 for a landline phone, and $15 a month for two prepaid Tracfones renewing every month. That totaled $111 a month.

Then last summer as we were getting setup in our new house, we came across a VOIP (Internet Phone) system known as Ooma. We did the math, and figured out that our almost $30 a month could pay for the Ooma in about 8 months which happened last spring. We brought it home, dumped our line with AT&T, and downgraded our Internet speed from the higher tier to the value tier (about 3Mb/s), realizing we could save more money since we almost never used the highest speed. Our new cost with these changes are Ooma phone: $0, Internet and cable: $47, and prepaid cell phones (2 phones, 1 year & 800 minutes/phone): $17. Grand total: $64 a month.

You are probably wondering how the Ooma system works, and what are the Pros and Cons of the Ooma. I have the Ooma plugged directly into the cable modem, with my wireless router plugged into the Ooma Core. The basic Ooma system includes free local and long distance calling for up to 5000 minutes a month, which comes to over two and a half hours a day on the phone. Caller ID and Call Waiting are included. The Ooma works with an ordinary phone, and it has a voice mail system, which will answer calls if you choose not to take a call while you are on another call. Ooma, by using the power of the Internet to cross International lines, is able to get you International Call rates at pennies per minute, or less.

The only problems you might have with the service are losing your phone service in a power outage (probably not a concern if you have a cell), and occasionally you may notice some odd sounds from the digitalization of your phone service. We've noticed less of this as the service has matured. New users do have to pay taxes such as the 911 access tax and other minor fees totaling a few dollars a month.

Ooma has the ability to upgrade to premium service for $10 a month to add extra features like a second phone line, ringing your cell when somebody calls your home number, or getting a phone number local to somewhere else in the country, for instance where your kids are attending school. Then they can call without using their cell minutes or paying long distance.

For me personally, I was always counting the minutes we were using on long distance before we got the Ooma, even though we never racked up more than $3, but now calling long distance is never a concern.

If you are like lots of other young folks today that are using your cell as your only phone, you are probably over paying compared to using the Ooma plus your cell. With Ooma at home, you could get a plan with much lower minutes, by using the Ooma phone line minutes to help you conserve your mobile minutes.

If this is something you might be interested in, check out the Ooma website, or head over to Amazon to see reviews and features list they have.
If you are interested in premium features, better quality sound, or a phone that has buttons giving you access to Ooma features while you are away from the base, you might check out the Ooma Telo.