Should Lawn Mowers and Leaf Blowers be Battery Operated in The Villages?
 

I read this morning that in a half hour, the pollutants spewed by the average two-cycle engine in a leaf blower equals the pollution from a Ford F-150 pickup—over a 3,600 mile drive! California has recently banned gas-powered leaf blowers, edgers, trimmers, lawnmowers, etc. use by lawn care companies because the pollution they put out is equal to the pollution from ALL the cars in California. It seems that battery-powered equipment, recharged at night, has reached the level where by having multiple batteries, crews can work all day without recharging. (All of my power tools are now battery-powered, including my Sawsall and my full-size circular saw and my big drill.) Battery-powered tools are also much quieter. For homeowners in The Villages with lawns, an electric mower with a cord may make more sense.

Should the appropriate governing units here follow the lead in California and require lawn crews to use battery-powered tools?

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I'm not necessarily a "green" person. But 3 years ago, we stopped having our lawn mowed by Dean's. I bought a Ryobi mower and all the trimming attachments. Love it. Works great and has plenty of power and run times.

One-cycle gas engines have ZERO anti-pollution measures and no doubt a source of Co2 etc etc. And of course the noise. The batt tech has improved so much over the past years and will continue. Slow but sure, as with vehicles, lawn equip will shift to battery/electric.

Many of my neighbors switched to batt electric.
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:1rotfl:

Oddly enough those that want electric/battery devices never explain where the energy comes from for: a)mfr batteries b)charging the batteries c)disposing of the batteries.

Likely because windmills don't supply enough energy to cover the cost of building/installing & maintaining them. Solar cells aren't efficient enough to provide the energy needed to cover their cost, replacement and they utilize aforementioned batteries for storage and use.

Nice ideas, but until technology catches up to the pie-in-the-sky wishes for clean energy it ain't happening.

While I love the idea of battery powered (aka quiet) lawn equipment, there are practical items to consider:
1. I would guess the average lawn trimmer, and weed blower used for 8 to 10 hours a day would go through several battery packs per day. Storage, recharging, replacing bad or weak packs, etc. will probably be a big problem.
2. Lawn mowers, both large and small would have similar problems, except these batteries are much larger, and harder to change out, more down time, etc.

I am guessing a hybrid model could work here, smaller items could go to battery, and improved mufflers, and SOME additional pollution controls for the larger equipment could be a workable solution. This could be handled with the contracts for landscaping without a lot of new laws, HOWEVER there will also probably be an associated cost increase.

Most lawn equipment now are 4 stroke, which reduces pollution drastically. But , they should at least have the baffles in the mufflers. That’s why they are so loud. IMO no electric mandate but noise level mandate requiring all lawn equipment to meet factory noise levels. Weed eaters and blowers with muffler guts removed are obnoxiously loud well above factory Dd limit when produced.

Thinking about a steam powered mower. It is so hot here in summer that the steam powered engine could run by itself. 100% clean energy

Just need a few trillion $ subsidy to get it rolling.

My pet peeve with noise is this - in say a cul de sac or a small street, there are 5 or 6 homes. All have different landscapers. So mowing/blowing will happen at 5 or 6 different times a week -
Even if you have 1 or 2 that do their own grass, the noise is cut down substantially.
If all used the same guy, you have noise for an hour, once a week
And the landscaper is more efficient, not loading/unloading at different places
I called 2 of your neighbors landscapers, and both said they were too busy to add me. I told them, you literally cut my nextdoor neighboor’s grass. You’re here. Nope.

IMHO until China and India come to the table and are on board with emission controls, my buying an electric lawn mower is like shoveling sand against the tide with a soup spoon

I don’t want our state doing anything California does.

Logic, facts and reality simply do not influence many posters..

As far as steam power. I've always found it interesting. The reality, high pressure steam is sort of a bomb. Controlling it is way beyond the ability of most in the villages to control it. Steam locomotives, the big ones were more powerful than modern diesel locomotives. They also were less efficient.

I believe they have banned the sale of new gas powered equipment starting in 2024. The exact details still have to be ironed out.

I'm thinking of buying a goat...

Great idea!
 

Great idea! Lawn and garden trimmed and fertilized all at the same time. And if your goat breaks down you can eat it.