Literacy Bridge
I found that battery pricing was surprisingly similar throughout the
country, whether in Accra or in the Upper West Region. Although it
was possible to buy alkaline batteries in Accra and in some spots in
larger towns in the Upper West, I was primarily pricing carbon-zinc,
AAs and D batteries. The most common Ds, by far, are the TigerHead
brand (Super Quality paper wrap). The most common AAs are the Sunwatt
brand (Super Quality), but I also found Tudor and Kenashmi, Funtom,
and Panasonic Hyper.
A good price for two TigerHead Ds was about $0.30, with $0.35 being
about the average. A good price for any four AAs was about
$0.20-$0.25, but I usually found them for about $0.30. Six AA
alkaline Energizer Max batteries ran about $3.00 — about 7-8x more
expensive per battery, or roughly 30% more expensive per mAh.
Radios and flashlights were the primary uses of batteries, both size
Ds. I actually can’t tell you what the most common use of AAs were,
but they are far less commonly used. Depending on usage, households
in the villages where I inquired tended to spend $0.50-$1.40 per month
on changing out two D cells in one radio every one to three weeks.
Flashlight battery replacement was a much less significant cost, but I
don’t have a good number for this. Overall, it appears that I was
getting numbers that were a good bit below the averages of $2/month
that I had read about. It’s possible that folks weren’t remembering
all their expenses; or, it could be that I was in some of the poorest
villages in Ghana.
I ended up purchasing a dozen TigerHead size D batteries in the Upper West Region and another dozen in Accra. I did the same the Sunwatt AA batteries. The plan is to test these batteries to get an idea how well they will perform in powering the Talking Book device.
This is great stuff, Cliff. A few more recent learnings of some potential interest to you:
TigerHead prices have risen in local currency (and in dollars a bit) . I haven’t been up to the Wa area, but I can’t imagine they are less there. At best now, you’ll find a pair of TigerHeads for 0.40 GHC (about the $0.35 you cite) at today’s rate. More commonly they are at 0.45 GHC, and, increasingly, especially off of major arterials, they are going for 0.50 GHC the pair.
SunWatt AA cells are used primarily to power newer devices, especially LED lighting fixtures that commonly take 3 X AA cells. A few newer, smaller radios take AA too, but people still prefer the umph they get in volume and tone from the bigger speaker that the D cells can drive. The AA format is still quite little-used here.
Be wary of using any of these carbon-zinc cells to power a valuable device. They will leak when drawn down — not sometimes, not occasionally, but pretty much with 100% “reliability” if left in a device with low charge for even a few days — especially in this heat. We see many many damaged and often ruined “torches” and radios from this phenomenom.
We are also seeing increasing validation of your $2/month battery budget number as an average, but with significant outliers skewing up. There is is also increasing evidence that a lot of very careful power rationing is going on to hit that level.
We see folks in rural areas adopting the Burro offering at nearly 100% levels when we enter a village. As hoped, we seem able to keep them at about their current battery budget while offering them near limitless power to do more with their devices.
Best wishes moving the pilot forward. I’ll be back in Seattle for the holidays, but back in Koforidua by early January. Hope to connect in both Seattle and Ghana!
-Whit
Thanks for the updated info, Whit!
Regarding the leakage of carbon-zinc batteries, we designed the batteries to sit outside the main device housing to minimize chance of damage from battery leakage.
Too bad to hear about rising prices of batteries! However, once everyone is using Burro, I won’t have to worry about these carbon-zinc issues!
Our pilot is now scheduled for early January. So, it looks like I might see you in Seattle and Ghana!
Cliff