Why do batteries lose charge when they’re not being used?
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I work with batteries and have to talk about this a lot, *my time to shine.*
There’s two parts to this.
One, if batteries are in something, even when not being used (remote, phone, key fob) that battery is constantly putting out signal and power to the device. The only way to stop the device from drawing power from the battery is to remove the battery from the device.
Secondly, even if batteries are sitting out on the floor and aren’t in anything, they may not be providing power to anything but their battery level is still draining. Batteries are filled chemicals and they essentially “evaporate.” Think of a battery just sitting there like a cup of water sitting on the table. Eventually that water will evaporate. It may take a while, but over time the water level will decrease.
With rechargeable batteries- like lithium ion and lead acid batteries- their power level drains but the overall lifespan of the battery is usually 4-6 years. Think of that similar to the human body, we have our day to day energy that we use up and “die” and need to recharge at the end of the day (sleep) but then our overall lifespan, despite depleting our energy levels everyday for years we reach the end of our lifespan 80 years later and would actually die and be considered dead.
Batteries use kinetic energy (electricity) to operate and as mentioned above their levels still deplete even when they’re not in use since it’s just a chemical reaction. As with everything, nothing goes on forever.
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