mAh rating on batteries

Feb 14, 2007 5 Replies

A total newbie question, but something I'd like to know nonetheless.



You can buy AA batteries with a rating of 2300mAh (if not higher), as you know, AA batteries are quite diminutive in size.



Compare with my laptop's batteries, almost brick-like in comparison, these are rated for 4700mAh Lithium-Ion



So how can an AA battery, but a fraction of the volume of my laptop's batteries, have half the capacity?



Or am I missing something?



Thanks


You need to factor in the voltage, and look at the total power in Watt hours.

AA =1.5V * 2.3A = 3.45 Watt Hours

Laptop Battery = 12V (see rating) * 4.7A = 56.4 Watt Hours

Not only that, with lithium ion having an energy density of 270WH/l and alkaline 320WH/l, a lithium battery would have to have about 1.5 times the volume of an alkaline for the same capacity.

The AA battery is a single 1.5 volt cell. Your laptop battery may be

14.8 volts, so it can hold about 20 times the energy of the AA cell.
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI Vancouver BC, Canada peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

Yes, you are missing the electrochemistry differences of various storage devices. They all have their place and they all are different.

As a general rule rechargeable batteries have a lower capacity for a given size.

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