Friday, April 17, 2015

Happy earth day to me.

To celebrate earth day, I bought an electric lawn mower, and I will only charge it on windy days, and we have lots of those. The wind farms south of town will be glad to hear this.

Two neighbors have them, they are really quiet compared to typical gas mowers and their grass looks great.  My mower is like 15 years old, smokes when it starts, it's loud, and every month I have to put a gas can in the trunk and come back with a few gallons - the trunk loaded with fumes, an IED on wheels.  Plus, when I go in the house after mowing the wife says, eee-you smell like exhaust, I can't smell it cause I been breathing in the poison while I hump that screamer around the yard.    I could keep the old thing going full time for another couple of years, but screw the Kochs, there's another few dollars of mine they will never see.  I'll keep it for a while to mulch up leaves and sticks after wind storms.

6 comments:

  1. My one armed mower keeps my weeds down pretty good but it's not a lawn either. You can't mow an entire estate with one of yours but I bet it will perform well.

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    1. OF, No problem there, this isn't exactly an estate, it is rated for 1/3 acre or an hour of cutting per charge, my lawn is well under that.

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  2. There have been electrics(mowers) in the golf market for many years. Never around them much to see how they perform and it's been awhile so really don't know where it stands. We bought to Toro electric Workman's that performed well enough but the cost factor was unacceptable. That may have changed as well by now.

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    1. The prices range from $500 to about 250. Gas ones are the same range, but most the electric are near the higher side of this range. For the small saving on gas, I can say it isn't a money maker, but a bit of a loser. But I have to change, we have to change, in the long run this will cost a little more, but it will divert at least a few bucks from the Kochs, and it saves a bit of CO2, especially if I can charge up on windy days. Doing what I can.

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  3. YUP! The solar collector is still on the table but I can see it will be hard to put this together efficiently meaning another person to get it done with little pissing around. It's different here. Gonna try.

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  4. I found this info comparing gas to electric mowers. Frist off, get a good one, make sure you read the current consumer guide, it rates mowers this month.
    Cost of fuel maintenance oil yearly spark plug, $47 gas, $1.20 electric.
    Time saved start to stop with electric over gas, 19%, (no refueling and oil checking needed)
    Sound, 105 decibels gas, 70 electric.
    Number of gallons spilled refueling gas mowers, yearly, 17 million.
    Pollution from 1 hour mowing with gas = 45 miles driven in large car.
    In only a few years this mower will come close to paying for it's self.

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