If you are organised, chances are you have already bought and wrapped all your children's and grand children's Christmas presents, and are sitting back waiting for the big day and anticipating the smiles from ear to ear from your loved ones as they open their presents.
Imagine their faces when they come asking you for batteries for their new favourite toy, and you have to rummage around in the garage or remove batteries from clocks and TV remotes. We all do it, so that we do not have to head out to the local petrol station and spend an astronomical amount on a pack of 4 AA or AAA batteries.
But what if we were organised and we could anticipate how many batteries and of what type we are going to need over the Christmas period. We have put together a list below of the most common usages of batteries over the festive period, and which batteries you are going to need to avoid meltdowns. It could be a Christmas Day saviour that avoids the turkey and pigs in blankets from burning.
Check Alarms and Smoke Detectors
First things first, let's make sure Christmas actually goes ahead. Checking the batteries in your smoke and burglar alarms are an important task to regularly undertake but even more so during the festive period. Changing the batteries in these small devices could be the difference between deterring a burglar and them stealing all your wrapped(or unwrapped) presents.
Smoke alarms are equally if not more important. According to research published in a number of recent studies, the most common time of the year for fires are between 6pm and 8pm during December. This is not surprising when you think of the amount of extra items we have running during this time such as candles, Christmas lights and gas fires. On top of that, research suggests that you are 50% more likely to die in a house fire over Christmas than you are at any other time of the year. Checking and changing your smoke alarm batteries could save yours and your family's lives.
Most fire and smoke alarms take either AA Batteries or a 9V Block Battery, both of which we stock here at Battery Group.
Remote Control Batteries
Whether its for the smart home heating panel or the television remote, make sure you have several spare batteries in your home this Christmas. AAA batteries are the most common type of battery for these applications.
AAA Batteries are often used in other electronic devices and applications used over Christmas too like weighing scales, DVD controllers and digital cameras.
Batteries For Christmas Toys and Gadgets
Without a doubt the largest consumer of batteries over the Christmas period are children's toys and games. We took a look at two high street retailers Christmas Gifts guides, and over 40% of the items listed required AA Batteries, and only 2 toys came with batteries included.
It is much more common for the toys and gadgets that require non-traditional batteries (AAA or AA) for them to be included within the box, but for the most common type of standard batteries like AA or AAA, you need to purchase additional ones. When purchasing batteries, make sure you get the right amount and right specification for the application.
Rechargeable batteries can often be a great cost saving idea, especially for items such as remote-control cars that use a high amount of power for a short period of time, as they can be used and reused over and over again. Check out our blog post on when it is best to use rechargeable or single use batteries, the outcome may surprise you.
Check Your Vehicle Battery
Whether it is you travelling or your guests are travelling to you this Christmas, make sure that your vehicle batteries are fully charged and in a good state of health. During cold weather and periods of inactivity, your car battery's health and state of charge will decrease, sometimes far enough to prevent your vehicle from starting.
Make sure that you use your car over the Christmas period enough to keep your battery charged, otherwise you could end up having to call out breakdown recovery. If you are unsure of the health of your battery, you can take it to most garages, who will provide a free battery test. If you do indeed need a new car battery, or a battery charger, we have a wide range that will be suitable for your car.
Have you checked or changed your car key fob battery recently? Do you need to change it, if so we have a large selection of car key batteries in stock to suit all vehicles.
Hearing Aid Battery Replacements
Last but by no means least, make sure that Grandad or Auntie Margaret can hear the Kings Speech on TV or the questions during the 10th round of Trivial Pursuit with our range of hearing aid replacement batteries. Simply ask them before they come to visit, if they need yellow, orange, brown or blue batteries for their hearing aid, as these colours are universally standardised to make it easy.
If you have read this blog and thought to yourself that you do indeed need to purchase some additional batteries to get through the Christmas period you are definitely in the right place. We stock everything from car batteries to hearing aid batteries and alarm batteries to remote controlled car batteries. Make sure you place your order with enough time before Christmas, to avoid spending extra money on petrol station batteries, or breakdown recovery company batteries, as both are twice, if not, 3 times more expensive than we are.
Check out our related blogs:
Rechargeable vs Single Use Batteries