motion sensor too sensitive
How can I use a lithium primary battery in place of a AA-size alkaline? Isn’t the voltage too high?
I have a battery-powered motion detector outside my house to trigger the outdoor lights when someone walks by. It takes 3 AA-batteries. Problem is, it is not very reliable when there are temperature changes. Seems like in sub-freezing weather, the sensor gets very sensitive to being turned on by wind. When it is warmer, the sensor works better. So, I’m thinking maybe it’s because the alkaline batteries are freezing?
I’ve read that lithium batteries have less water in them, so they are less suceptible to freezing. I just don’t understand how a set of 3 AA-alkaline batteries with a voltage of 1.5×3=4.5 volts can be replaced by 3 AA-lithium batteries with a voltage of 3.6×3 = 10.8 volts.
You need to consider a couple of things:
Every battery has a temperature range in which it operates. If the operating conditions are too cold or too hot, then chances are that your batteries will fail much earlier than in normal operating conditions.
Every device has power requirements that are fulfilled by the recommended batteries that it uses. If your batteries deviate from the specs, your device may not function properly.
So, when you pick your batteries, you need to look at both the temperature ratings and the power ratings for the batteries you intend to use.
By definition, a AA battery should supply a voltage of between 1.2 and 1.5 Volts according to standard specifications. However there are now available “AA-sized” batteries which supply a different voltage range.
For your purpose, you need to find AA-sized lithium chemistry batteries which supply voltage in the correct range as required by your device. As far as I know, the Energizer Lithium batteries are the only true Lithium AA which supply the correct voltage.
Go to the battery manufacturers website to get the spec sheet for the batteries and make sure that both the temperature and voltage requirements are within the specs that you need.
Here is the data sheet for the Energizer batteries I mentioned earlier: http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/l91.pdf
In it you can see the comparison charts between standard alkalines and Energizer Lithium batteries.
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