With so many common usages, do we take batteries for granted?

You only need to visit Battery Life to see just how battery technology has advanced since the battery inventor, Alessandro Volta, gave us the first battery in 1800. The common usages now go far beyond anything he could ever have dreamed of.

In the home

We have so many different battery types around the home that it’s easy to take them for granted. They power all kinds of consoles and gadgets like our clocks and watches, cordless phones and remote controls, shavers and toothbrushes, toys, cameras, laptops and wireless routers, lighting and water fountains out in the garden … and, of course, they’re always on standby to help in a power cut – the first thing we do is reach for a torch, and we can rest assured that our electric smoke detectors and so on will continue to work, and also no more resetting the clocks on all those appliances when the power comes back on!

On the move

From the car battery to bicycle light batteries, from specialised aeronautical batteries to boat batteries, these power sources help keep us on the move.

And don’t forget the batteries for our mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets and MP3 players – essential in the modern world of travel.

Our health

Hospitals are full of instruments which use batteries to test, maintain and improve our health, and so many of those gadgets in emergency ambulances depend on batteries for that all-important, life-saving treatment.

And, of course, without batteries we wouldn’t have those implants which make so much difference for those with health problems – pacemakers and hearing aids spring to mind.

Essential part of modern life

Batteries provide us with the means to power so many of the devices we use today, and continued advances in their technology mean that we will be using them more and more, well into the future.