Originally Posted by
pdlamb
Let's look at another use case, the daily commuter. Battery won't quite stretch to two days' commute, so it's charged nightly. Four months a year, 20 days a month, 80 charges per year. That 1000 cycles is developed for a charge of 50% oritinal capacity at room temperature; on cold days it's de-rated 50%. (Yes, unfortunately, manufacturers play games like this!) That battery is good for no more than three years. Freeze it in the garage, cook it a time or two, and you'll be lucky to get two years out of that same battery.
Even though I wasn't commuting as much back when I used battery lights, I never got more than three years out of a battery.
That's one of the reasons I only used 1/10 and 1/4 rated cycles in most of my examples, that last line was a bit of a stab. I doubt anyone would get the full rated life of any cell.
The latest eneloop's are supposedly rated to 1800 charges, assuming that we can only rely on 1/4 of this - that is a maximum of 450 charges.
In theory, based on your scenario of 80 charges/year - they
should last over 5 years.
That said, I don't doubt your real world experience - I am only going on theory.
All that aside, the OP is looking to avoid recharging batteries anyway.