Featured The Problem(s) with Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs)

You raise a good point over CO2. These small engines won't produce a lot per year exactly as you originally asserted, they just won't use that much fuel in a given year. The tests in the link are focused on all the other pollutants, which is fair to address because modern ICE cars handle those extremely well, where small engines are still about where they were in 1950. Except unlike 1950, there are zillions of them around.

 

Two stroke engines in hand-held tools like weed whackers, chain saws, leaf blowers, etc. are horrible polluters and two stroke engines have been outlawed in cars a long time ago and in street bikes in the 80's, I believe. These engines burn oil by design and therefore produce very bad emissions. Their advantage is in portability. You basically need half as much displacement in a 2 cycle engine to produce similar power in 4 cycle. 2 cycle engines lack much of the hardware (like valve train) of the 4 cycle engines and are therefore a lot lighter. So we'll have to live with these polluters until the batteries get light and/or cheap (so you can have a few on hand in the field). If you are a tree arborist I doubt you would use a battery powered chain saw as it is now. But when the battery is small and has good capacity, then it's a huge improvement. As with cars, much is riding on that energy density of the current rechargeable batteries. Once they get dense enough we can expect electric air travel and that is a very large source of pollution.

I can't wait to replace my riding mower with electric. Push mower is not a choice for me. Weed whacker too. Mine broke and I went on Craigslist and bought another gasser for $35. Terrible, I know, but I can't drop $200 on a weed whacker right now. This is the reality part of the whole electric revolution. Cost.

We'll get there eventually. Let's just hope that we can get there before it's too late.

 

Just in the past 4-5 years a lot of new options have surfaced. Electric riding mowers went from custom/coachbuilt/enginering project status to unusual (but available) mass produced consumer goods status. More are coming. Even the plodding sheet-metal-and-cast-iron outdoor power manufacturers are waking up to it and buying up some younger electric competitors.

I will point out that while I am able to maintain my ex-urb property with mostly electric tools, I think a major factor was that I bought it in 2016. I didn't have yard tools at all before this, so I needed to outfit the place from scratch. A lot of good electric tools were already available by then, so I haven't had to wait for replacement cycles. As it is, I bought a mixture of secondhand, dealer demo units and new items for the yard tools. Only the chipper, snowthrower & generator burn gas.

 

Oh we definitely can, it is a question of will we choose to?

 

I think we ARE choosing to, but certain things are not yet possible. Like air travel. And white house/congress, but that's temporary. I do believe we are past the point of no return to going electric in most places where we burn fossils. Now it's just a matter of pace of evolution.

 

Battery powered yard tools are ideal for the homeowner. But due to their limited run time, they may not yet be a viable alternative for the professional landscaper.

 

Why not? The whole point is that power density is now at a useful level for hard work. The landscaper would have to manage some batteries, and they may even need to put a power system on the truck to stay ahead of operations. Mobile news gathering already does this, why can't landscapers?

Oh right, it costs something. But the numbers keep getting better, and eventually noise nuisance laws will push them into it.

 

Forget motorcycles and ATVs, I think Honda should put their swappable battery system into lawn mowers.

I got an electric chainsaw this year because I was tired of breathing in the fumes from the gas one. Gas powered tools don't contribute much CO2, but the other pollutants are directly harmful to human health, and right in your face.

The chipper and snowthrower is what I started with.

 

Oh yeah?? share! what did you find? In both cases I could not find electric ones with enough oomph. I do have a small electric chipper, it's good for the twigs & heavy grasses. All the real stuff goes through a green grinder contraption with a 5-horse on it and comes out as wood mulch. And I have to be careful not to overwork & stall it.

For the thrower I got a gas burner because (at that time) there were no 2-stage electrics on the market. There is now one that I'm aware of, and it might be enough. The goal is to be able to clear a foot of snow from 4000sf of driveway in less than 120 minutes. That doesn't happen often, it's just for comparison.

 

I have a tiny yard in town. So a small electric chipper and single stage Snow Joe work for me.

 

My wife's new lawn mower holds 11 gallons of gas. There is a whole page in the engine manual about EPA emissions.

 

professional landscapers should be required to use rakes and brooms

 

I don't think you really mean that if you are paying by the hour.

 

our clubhouse area as over 10 acres of grass of which I bitched long enough to get about ¼ acre done in the artificial stuff. Less gas used. & h2o

 

what do they do on 10 acres of mown grass?

 

very important apparently, to give the Canadian geese no cause to fly south for the winter, so they walk around, lay eggs and make more geese and do their goose squirts all over the place, all winter long. Oh joy
I even commented how much they'd save on Gardners, but you'd think I just put them in death camps by suggesting how many employees they could send on their way.

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my neighbor has 8 acres he hays once a year. he says the long grass is great for many species of wildlife. not geese though.

 

We were in Yosemite a year ago neat the falls and the maintenance guy had a defective leaf blower belching out smoke, sheesh. I tried to get a snap shot but he stopped while people were near. NPS is of my main things I donate to, so it ain't my fault.

 

I have an electric chain saw. But on 18 acres, the trees are so far from electricity I have to bring a generator out to power the chainsaw. At least the fumes are over by the generator and not in my face, I guess.

 

Corded chainsaw? How big of tree can you cut with it?