Battery life of wireless doorbell

[philo]

After I had him carry a dozen cells up a flight of stairs
(and the old ones back down) he started laughing a bit less

I really rubbed it in a bit and told him that I was the one who
installed
them originally
about 5 years before!

I realised I was getting on when I started ripping out equipment that was
state of the art 8-10 years ago when I first installed it, and replacing
it
with kit that was a fraction of the size (

Heck my heavy lifting ended about 6 years ago when I had knee surgery

I just get contractors to do it )

Though the electronics has changed quite a bit in the 32 years I've been in
the battery business...
and there have even been some changes in the batteries too...
Lead is lead...and it's heavy!

 

[John]

"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:tncer2tsnsqgs65kqu61d3ks80jh6lgkdq@4ax.com...

On Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:07:16 GMT, "John"
john.plant510@ntlworld.com> wrote:


As a % of time the buzzer isn't running very often and the
rest of the receiver may be using on a few uA. Since I have
one that uses 2 x C cells and they have lasted a little over
a year already, it is already clear it uses significantly
less than 1mA on average.

I stand by my point - the bell unit is acting as a radio receiver all the
time - ready to ring if it receives the correct input. It is bound to use
a
significant amount of power. I would only consider having a mains powered
one - as many have a 13 amp plug through facility you are not even losing
a
socket.
Battery quality is also an obvious factor.



Define "significant amount of power". Since the batteries
in mine are plain old Duracell alkalines rated for 7800mAh,
http://www.duracell.com/oem/Pdf/others/ATB-full.pdf
and since it's already ran for over a year (but let's round
down to 1 year for simplicities' sake), 24/7 constantly,
that's already an absolute maximum possible avg. current of

7800 / [24 * 365] = 0.9mA

... and it only goes lower every day it continues to run off
same pair of cells. It may be that those Duracells can
produce more than 7800mAh at such a slow drain rate, but not
enough to make much of a difference in the calculations,
we're still looking at a sub-1mA range considering those
cells aren't dead yet and may not be any day soon.

I would agree that battery quality is an obvious factor but
why would someone put low quality batteries in (anything?)
except perhaps for those generic NiMH if the device didn't
need run any longer than those can provide before another
recharge cycle is acceptible - definitely not the case in
this context with a door buzzer.


You must be fortunate with your choice of unit and batteries. People I know

seem to often have theirs dead (Please knock sticker) and complain about
battery consumption.

Good for you.

 

[Derek Geldard]

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 13:37:22 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
<dave@davenoise.co.uk> wrote:

In article <Xns98BE80C9F79CC64A18E@127.0.0.1>,
Ziggy <duff@nomail.invalid> wrote:
What is the approximate battery life of the receiver of a wire free door
chime?

For the sake of argument, let's say the unit is used very little and the
receiver does not have a light.

{Here are some sample products from Argos http://tinyurl.com/2sb3r9}

Not having such a device, why would the *receiver* be battery powered
unless you live somewhere without mains electricity?

You can move them about the house with you if, say you were working in
an upstairs room when expecting a parcel / take them into the
conservatory / out to the barbecue. Also you can site them on top of
tall cupboards where they are out of the way and inconspicuous without
trailing wires.

Oddly the transmitter unit in my 4 year old Friedland unit has never
had a new battery (presumably a button cell of some kind), whereas the
sounder has had 3 sets of 2 "C" cells.

DG

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article <mpver29dh862635h6vckr2n8nv9lu1lj8i@4ax.com>,
Derek Geldard <usenet@miniac.demon.co.uk> wrote:

Not having such a device, why would the *receiver* be battery powered
unless you live somewhere without mains electricity?

You can move them about the house with you if, say you were working in
an upstairs room when expecting a parcel / take them into the
conservatory / out to the barbecue.

But I'd expect a mains bell system to be heard throughout the house. The
fact that you have to take a wireless one with you is just one more thing
against it.

Also you can site them on top of
tall cupboards where they are out of the way and inconspicuous without
trailing wires.

FFS, this is a DIY group. You don't need to put up with trailing cables.
;-)

Oddly the transmitter unit in my 4 year old Friedland unit has never
had a new battery (presumably a button cell of some kind), whereas the
sounder has had 3 sets of 2 "C" cells.

So not cheap to run, then.

--
*Why can't women put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

 

[Owain]

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

You can move them about the house with you if, say you were working in
an upstairs room when expecting a parcel / take them into the
conservatory / out to the barbecue.
But I'd expect a mains bell system to be heard throughout the house.

.... down the garden and into the next street if you choose the right
sort

Owain

 

[kony]

On Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:50:44 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman
(News)" <dave@davenoise.co.uk> wrote:

In article <mpver29dh862635h6vckr2n8nv9lu1lj8i@4ax.com>,
Derek Geldard <usenet@miniac.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Not having such a device, why would the *receiver* be battery powered
unless you live somewhere without mains electricity?

You can move them about the house with you if, say you were working in
an upstairs room when expecting a parcel / take them into the
conservatory / out to the barbecue.

But I'd expect a mains bell system to be heard throughout the house. The
fact that you have to take a wireless one with you is just one more thing
against it.

.... or for it, not everyone has either a tiny house or wants
a bell system that loud, which tends to be that much louder
in areas adjacent to it. If you have plaster walls or
teenagers/others with loud stereos you may also find there's
no one bell system that can be heard everywhere without
waking the dead in the next zip code.

In short the ideal bell system is not as loud as possible,
it's only loud enough to be heard reliably. One could wire
up secondary chimes but considering the addt'l time and/or
expense it may not not suit all needs either.

You don't "have" to take anything with you, that's like
claiming it's a negative thing that a notebook is portable.

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article <fg3gr2pvim4ugl0kdp6621ehpmn3kgchha@4ax.com>,
kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:

But I'd expect a mains bell system to be heard throughout the house.
The fact that you have to take a wireless one with you is just one more
thing against it.

... or for it, not everyone has either a tiny house or wants
a bell system that loud, which tends to be that much louder
in areas adjacent to it.

If you can't hear a bell throughout the house, why bother with one? Just
have a knocker on the door - no batteries to go flat and no running costs.

If you have plaster walls or
teenagers/others with loud stereos you may also find there's
no one bell system that can be heard everywhere without
waking the dead in the next zip code.

In short the ideal bell system is not as loud as possible,
it's only loud enough to be heard reliably. One could wire
up secondary chimes but considering the addt'l time and/or
expense it may not not suit all needs either.

It's such a one time installation worth getting right, IMHO.

You don't "have" to take anything with you, that's like
claiming it's a negative thing that a notebook is portable.

Not a good simile. You find a notebook when you want to refer to it. A
doorbell is needed at random. And it's such a random thing the idea of
carrying it with you strikes me as silly. If you did need such a feature
one which interfaced with your mobile would make more sense. Easy enough
to do with an alarm SDI if you wanted to.

--
*Forget about World Peace...Visualize using your turn signal.

Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

 

[kony]

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:35:24 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman
(News)" <dave@davenoise.co.uk> wrote:

In article <fg3gr2pvim4ugl0kdp6621ehpmn3kgchha@4ax.com>,
kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:
But I'd expect a mains bell system to be heard throughout the house.
The fact that you have to take a wireless one with you is just one more
thing against it.

... or for it, not everyone has either a tiny house or wants
a bell system that loud, which tends to be that much louder
in areas adjacent to it.

If you can't hear a bell throughout the house, why bother with one? Just
have a knocker on the door - no batteries to go flat and no running costs.

It's quite simple really, you don't want the doorbell so
loud nearby, but also want to be able to hear it elsewhere,
for a different door.

If you have plaster walls or
teenagers/others with loud stereos you may also find there's
no one bell system that can be heard everywhere without
waking the dead in the next zip code.

In short the ideal bell system is not as loud as possible,
it's only loud enough to be heard reliably. One could wire
up secondary chimes but considering the addt'l time and/or
expense it may not not suit all needs either.

It's such a one time installation worth getting right, IMHO.

How would you propose to not "get it right"?
You seem arbitrarily set against a cordless doorbell merely
because you can't envision a use for your subjective
purposes. That doesn't begin to make it a bad choice for a
different, subject's purposes.

You don't "have" to take anything with you, that's like
claiming it's a negative thing that a notebook is portable.

Not a good simile. You find a notebook when you want to refer to it. A
doorbell is needed at random. And it's such a random thing the idea of
carrying it with you strikes me as silly. If you did need such a feature
one which interfaced with your mobile would make more sense. Easy enough
to do with an alarm SDI if you wanted to.

How it is random? Do you really not expect people coming
over ahead of time, they always show up by surprise?
Perhaps at your front door, but remember this is a separate
remote button and may be at a different door- one where
people showing up may not be doing so at random.

It goes back to what I already wrote, you just don't
envision a use for _your_ door, and you might be quite right
about it... but that doesn't make what someone else chooses
to do any less useful to them.