As it is a recurrent question to find the right battery for an IoT design, I decided to write a post about this topic. I’m not claiming to be an expert of this and I’ll not give insight on this. The purpose is to list the different technology existing with the main characteristics to be able to use the best fitting technologies quickly.

This post is presenting a table of the different battery’s technologies available with the main characteristics. These characteristics are global one regarding the technology. Each of the battery vendor can have specific specifications a bit different. You will need to take a look on datasheets details.

Introduction

In this post I’m going to list different batteries technologies and main characteristics allowing a quick comparison and choice. For this I’ll be based my comparison on AA size batteries also named 14500. This way the comparison between battery technology will be fair. For type of battery not existing in this format, I’ll do my best to find one having the same equivalent volume.

The post will be split into two parts due to the table size and for a better readability. The first part will address non rechargeable cells and the second part will compare rechargeable batteries.

All the information above are informative, potentially incomplete and false. If you have information to improve this post, the comments are open and welcome. Use these information at your own risk. Please verify all of them with your battery supplier documentation.

As noticed as comment, the battery documentation usually presenting capacity with a stable load all over the time. The Iot specificity is to have really long period with a couple of uA at sleep followed by a high pic of energy during transmission. This is have a large impact (positive as negative) on the battery capacity. I’ll soon publish an post on the OTII tool explaining how to get the real battery profile and capacity for your IoT project.

Non rechargeable (Primary) batteries

AA / 14500 size or equivalent

Type	LiSOCl2	Zn-MnO2	Li-FeS2	Li-MnO2	Zn-Cl2
Name	Lithium Thionyl	Alcaline	Lithium	Lithium Manganese	Saline
Voltage	3,6V	1,5V	1,5V	3V	1,5V
Capacity	2250mAh	2960mAh	2900mAh	2000mAh	1220mAh
	8,1W	4,4W	4,3W	6W	1,8W
Price	4€	1€	4€	8€	0,2€
Max current	50mA	> 1A	2A	>500mA	> 1A
Temp Range	-55°C +85°C	-10°C     +50°C	-20°C +60°C	-30°C  +75°C	+10°C +25°C
Risk	?	low	?	low	low
Environment	?	?	?	?	?
leak current	1% / y	3-5% / y	1% / y	< 1% / y	5-10% / y

 

Rechargeable (secondary) batteries

AA / 14500 size or equivalent

Type	Li-Ion	Li-Po	Li-FePo4	NiMh	NiZn	NiCd
Name	Lithium Ion	Lithium Polymere	Lithium Fer Phosphate	NiMh	NiZn	Nickel Cadnium
Voltage	3,7V	3,7V	3,2V	1,2V	1,6V	1,2V
Capacity	1500mAh	1800mAh	600mAh	2700mAh	1500mAh	1000mAh
	5,5W	6,6W	1,9W	3,2W	2,4W	1,2W
Price	3,5€	5€	5€	2,5€	3,5€	2€
Max Current	>1A	>1A	120mA – >1A	500mAh	>1A	1A
Temp Range	-20°C +60°C	-10°C +60°C	-10°C +60°C	-10°C +50°C	-20°C +65°C	-20°C +60°C
Risk	Fire / Explosion	Fire	Warming	?	?	?
Environment	– – –	– – –	+	?	?	– –
Leak current	5%/m	3% / m	1% / m	10 %  / m	20% /m	20% / m
Cycles	500	500	2000	1500	1000	2000

On the side links

• A nice document on different type of Lithium technology and associated risks