This is something that has bugged me for many years! I am an
industrial designer and whenever I got a project that was battery
powered I tried to make sure it would work with rechargable
batteries, but it has been an up-hill battle.

AFAIK it seems the big problem is the voltage output of rechargeable
is usually slightly less than non-rechargeable so the electrical
engineers balk at adding one more battery to the package to make up
for the difference. In very small products one extra battery could be
a project stopper. Until the rechargeable battery industry is able to
make higher output levels (or the other electronics/electrical parts
are designed to work at lower  voltage) this will continue to be a
problem.

Not that it is a great solution, but many cities  now have battery
recycling stations - in California is is now illegal to put batteries
in the general trash (but enforcement is a bit weak...) http://
www.ciwmb.ca.gov/HHW/Info/

Another tangential problem is the number of different transformer
packs, plug-ends and adaptors that are needed to run all those small
devices. The so-called "universal adaptor" I got at Radio Shack for
my Vanagon is anything but. And think of how much power is being
wasted by all of those transformers!

Dave Richoux 83.5 Westy

On Aug 6, 2006, at 8:24 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

>> At  8/6/2006 04:21 PM,Bob Elliott wrote:
>>> The last week on the list has produced some product endorsements
>>> that
>>> I've found quite disturbing, in particular when these endorsements
>>> originate from our supposedly nature appreciating group.
>>> Specifically
>>> when the products mentioned this week use "C" and "D" cell
>>> batteries,
>>> in some cases "8" at a time! How can we sanction this when the
>>> majority of Westy owners have 12volt available to power these
>>> devices?