US sets limits on carrying lithium batteries aboard flights....

[blurboiboi]

read this in the papers today.... how about our AA batts used for flashes??... would it be affected??...

 

[theRBK]

read this in the papers today.... how about our AA batts used for flashes??... would it be affected??...

unless you use lithium based AA batts, shouldn't be a problem... most AA rechargeables are NiMH, not lithium but there are lithium ones...

if you are using lithium ones, you can either change to NiMH ones, or try to decipher the mess that is the regulations...

from US Department of Transport's website:

- it seems that you can have one set of battery/s in your equipment, either checked-in or carry-on, but if checked in they have to be able to be securely switched off, possibly by taping the power switch to the off position... no spare batteries to be checked-in...

- for carry-on, you can carry no limit to lithium ion batteries below 8 gram equivalent of lithium... 8 gram equivalent of lithium according to the US Department of Transport is about 100 watt hour of battery power... so most camera batteries should be in this category... even the large pro camera batteries (Nikon ENEL4A is 11.1v x 2500mAh = 27.75WH and Canon LP-E4 is 11.1v x 2300mAh = 25.53WH)... so obviously lithium ion AA batteries should be ok if carried on board as they are much smaller...

- for laptops, pls go calculate yourself... but most standard batteries should be no prob... for people who have forgotten their physics, V x AH = WH (volt multiplied by ampere hour equals watt hour)

- if your batteries weigh in more than 8 gram equivalent of lithium but less than 25 (about 300 WH) than you can carry-on up to 2 spare batteries that should add up to less than 25 gram equivalent of lithium...

- no batteries larger than 25 gram equivalent of lithium allowed aboard passenger planes...

- for lithium metal batteries (not commonly used in photo equipment) go read up that website...

so if your lithium ion batteries are less than 8 gram equivalent of lithium, no probs as long as you carry-on the batteries onto the plane and don't check them in... if more than 8 gram equivalent of lithium but less than 25gram, go figure the combined grammage...