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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • The vast majority of cell phones use a single-cell Li-Ion battery, so their capacities can be directly compared using mAh. Laptops almost always contain multi-cell Li-Ion batteries, so their capacity cannot be directly compared using mAh (e.g. a 4S battery rated for 2500mAh has more energy than a 3S battery rated for 3000mAh).

    So why don’t we use Wh for phones too? Simply because manufacturers would rather advertise a battery size of five thousand mAh (wow, so much capacity!) instead of 19 Wh.

    The same issue happens with portable USB battery packs - they’re all advertised in mAh even though they use a wide variety of chemistries and cell configurations internally. What manufacturers do is take the total Wh of the pack and convert it back to the equivalent mAh of a single-cell Li-Ion. It’s annoying, and I really wish they would just use Wh directly.


  • The main problem with lithium ion battery fires is that the reaction is self-oxidizing, so you can’t put it out by just smothering it. You actually need to cool them down enough so that they don’t re-ignite. Plus, once they’re damaged, even if you do cool them down enough they’re much more likely to short and re-ignite themselves again anyway.

    Consider the “fire triangle” - fire needs three things: fuel, oxygen, and heat. With, for example, gasoline fires you can take away either oxygen OR heat to extinguish them, but with lithium-ion battery fires you have to take away the heat to extinguish them.