Posted on 05/15/2023 6:15:43 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Hannah Holmes of South Portland loves her electric lawnmower. It's quieter and more eco-friendly than your typical gas mower. She can push it with one hand.
But it has its drawbacks. One battery has just enough charge to last about 30 to 45 minutes. People who have big yards either need multiple batteries — which are not cheap, Holmes noted — or need to accept that mowing the lawn will have to happen in stages. And you can't let the lawn grow too long.
"It doesn't like tall grass, it just doesn't have the horsepower of a gas-powered motor, so it'll stall out on tall grass," she says, carefully maneuvering the push mower through a hillock of grass.
It's springtime, and people are starting to plant flowers and mow their lawns. South Portland is looking at ways to make that process more climate-friendly as part of its sustainability goals. It's a small part of South Portland's ambitious One Climate Future plan.
But it's wrapped up in the effort to move away from gas-powered vehicles. Part of that effort could be phasing out traditional lawnmowers' use in the future. That suggestion has mostly been met with resistance.
"For my business it would cost upwards of six figures just to purchase the equipment needed to replace our small engine fleet, not including the charging infrastructure and the batteries that would be an additional cost," he said.
For residents like Ed Haskill, the city's entire climate strategy is pointless, given the global scale of greenhouse gas emissions.
"Yes, it would be nice if everything was perfect and wonderful and we could change the world in South Portland, but until you get India and China onboard, you ain't changing the climate," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mainepublic.org ...
This week on Friday, as I do every Friday in the mowing season:
I will fire up my 38 hp diesel 72” Kubota front mount mower and cut the grass.
Before that I will go trim around the trees with the 25 hp Airens Z-turn mower and cut the small areas of the yard.
Following that I will crank up the four stroke trimmer and clean-up then blow the clippings with the gas powered blower.
After all of that, time permitting, I will crank up the 60 hp diesel tractor and the 7’ flail mower with fence line trimmer attachment and clip along part of the miles of pasture fence until dinner time or dark.
Friday is mowing day and one providing great satisfaction of a job well done. It usually only takes about 5 gallons of diesel and gasoline. Such an amazing power density in diesel fuel even at less than 30% thermal efficiency. Just imagine what could happen with just improving the efficiency to 40 or 50%! That seems like a far better investment of effort than retooling the entire world with battery driven stuff.
When someone can pack this much work into batteries at an economical price I might consider it. Until then forget about it. I won’t go down easily.
Truer words that need repeating.
If you want to go electric, there are remote controlled hybrid mowers. The cutter motor runs on gasoline, while movement is controlled by a battery-run electric motor. The operator uses a handheld wireless controller to direct the mower and control the cutting height. Benefit of the hybrid is that the gasoline motor recharges the battery while in use, resulting in long run times as long as the gasoline is available. Expensive, well over $1000 to $3000 but fun to use.
“For my business it would cost upwards of six figures just to purchase the equipment needed to replace our small engine fleet,”
Seen the video of a gang cleaning out a lawn care store?
Three minutes after busting out the front door with a stolen pickup truck...Small engine fleet restored for free!
Whatta country...
In NH, farming fields were called “rock farms”.
It sounds like a nice addition for straight-up mowing. Pretty expensive initial cost?
Honestly, I haven’t looked, so please excuse my laziness there.
Yes, we grow both types of rocks.
bigins and goodins
End result: I spent $2K extra for a battery version of the zero turn mower compared to a gas version -- at least for the ability of what I need (I never mulch, run over it again to bag it, etc.). Since with the old mower I was spending about $330 per year on gas and yearly oil change and such, we're looking at a 6 year turn around on the yearly savings paying for the upfront cost. And that's assuming static prices for gas and such. Quicker turnaround if price of gas goes up.
The real test will be with repairs that aren't the usual sharpening of blades and putting tubes in tires. If it breaks down at least half as much as a comparable gas mower the repair costs will make me hate it. But if it breaks down less, or if the only repairs are ones I can do myself such as replacing one of the 3 electric motors over the blade housing turning the blades, or replacing one of the batteries that literally pop in and out easier than a D-size battery), then I'll be happy with it.
Electric means more expensive that cannot do as good a job as gas powered.
I actually just switched after 20 years from a gas powered to an electric trimmer/edger. I love it. It always works
My first DeWalt electric mower lasted a month. One of the batteries failed. Home Depot did not sell the replacement battery !!!
So Home Depot swapped out the entire machine.
I was annoyed, but that was the correct solution. The replacement machine cuts the entire yard on a single charge now.
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