The downside of such widespread battery usage is having to buy new batteries all the time and sending hundreds of batteries per American family to the landfill each year. Luckily, there’s an alternative: rechargeable batteries!

What are rechargeable batteries?

When it comes to rechargeable batteries, you’re getting the same product that you are used to—but it will last much longer. These batteries can be plugged into recharging devices and reused again and again, as opposed to the one-use disposable batteries that you are likely buying now.

Rechargeable batteries are a godsend for the environment, as they can greatly reduce the amount of batteries that end up having to be recycled or put into landfills—especially considering that

When it comes to energy efficiency, rechargeable batteries save you money in the long term after a small bit of initial investment. They’re slightly more expensive up front, and the required charging stations aren’t free either; but you’ll save in the long run because you can keep using the same batteries over and over without having to buy new ones!

What’s even better: the more you would normally spend on batteries, the more you’ll end up saving over time!

Crunching the numbers

Lifehacker’s own Trent Hamm ran an experiment to see just how energy efficient these products are. Hamm is the perfect person to run such an experiment: he and his family use 36 AA batteries per month on average!

First, he tackled the difference between buying the batteries themselves. For the purposes of the experiment, Hamm priced out a 12-pack of e2 Titanium batteries from Amazon for $7.77 as the baseline cost for disposable batteries. At that cost, he would buy $77.70 worth of AA batteries every year.

Replacing this many batteries with rechargeable version requires a significant investment. Instead of $7.77 per dozen, these batteries were priced at $11.20 for four, bringing his cost up to $100.80 for the batteries alone. Plus, there is the $48 to buy charging stations for these batteries. Therefore, the initial cost of investing in 36 rechargeable batteries is ~$150, $80 more than Hamm would normally spend on batteries in a given year.

However, this is where rechargeable batteries begin to shine. When he measured the cost of charging his 36 batteries, he concluded the cost was a negligible $0.24 cents per YEAR!

Therefore, Hamm would only spend $0.24 on batteries during the next year, instead of $77 if he were still buying disposable batteries. With the net loss from the initial cost of investment in the rechargeable rig being $80, Hamm would make the overwhelming majority of his cost back in savings in the next year. After that, his family can enjoy savings of $77 while also keeping 432 batteries out of landfills in the process!

So, are they worth it?

After crunching the numbers, rechargeable batteries certainly seem worth the investment. If you can afford to make a relatively small one-time investment, you’ll enjoy huge energy savings for years to come.

It’s also important to note that a lot of Hamm’s costs came in the form of buying so many batteries at once. If your family doesn’t quite as many batteries per month, then your initial cost of investment will be lower, and you’ll be able to enjoy your savings even faster!

Best of all, if you buy your rechargeable batteries through our Star Energy Rewards app, you will receive cashback on your purchases!

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