In the pursuit of standardization, the Irminfyrd have chosen the AA battery as the standard size for all battery powered personal equipment. Whenever possible, flashlights, night vision devices, GPS receivers, and hand held radios should all accept AA batteries.
The batteries themselves should be rechargeable so that during a power outage or long duration in a remote location, battery dependent equipment will not become useless when disposable batteries die and replacements are unavailable.
When used in conjunction with a portable solar panel, and a smart charger, rechargeable NiMH batteries will keep your essential equipment “up” as long as you have access to sunshine. New technology in Nickel Metal Hydroxide (NiMH) rechargeable batteries provides many beneficial features:
- Very slow self discharge, maintains 85% residual capacity after 1 year of storage and 70% residual capacity after 2 years of storage.
- High performance even at low temperatures.
- Designed for enhanced performance for high drain applications.
- Can be recharged for up to 1000 times, providing big savings by replacing hundreds of throw away AA batteries.
- Can be rapidly charged with any quick charger, smart chargers, plug in charger or universal chargers.
The Irminfyrd recommends Sanyo Eneloop 2,000 MaH rechargeable AA batteries as standard equipment for the individual Fyrdsman. It is recommended that each battery powered device be outfitted with one extra set of batteries, plus a set in the charger itself.
For equipment that uses C or D size batteries, an adapter is available that allows an AA form battery to be installed in place of the larger size. This is useful in something like a D cell maglite flashlight (you have to install a metal disk like a dollar coin in front of the spring to use the adapters in a Maglite).
AA batteries can be installed in place of C and D cells using these adapters.
These batteries and adaptors are available on Amazon, Ebay, and several online retailers.