Environmental Cents
Battery-powered lawn equipment is here, and the prices are falling. Given the emissions of two-cycle engines, it's a good time to switch to battery power.
by Bruce Saller
WRITER
According to the Environment Protection Agency, gasoline powered lawn and garden equipment produces up to 5% of the nation’s air pollution. Among these tools’ emissions are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter.
An older push mower emits as much pollution as 11 cars, and an older riding mower emits as much as 34 cars. Newer mowers, depending on the model, emit between 35% and 90% percent less pollution. However, even at these improved rates, they are polluting more than a car.
Two-cycle engine lawn equipment (blowers, trimmers, etc.) are worse polluters because they don’t fully burn their oil-gas fuel mixture.
Electric lawn mowers and garden tools are a low-pollution alternative to these items. Best of all for the consumer, electric garden tools can cost about the same as gas powered tools in certain cases.
Corded electric push mowers tend to cost less than an equivalent gas lawn mower. Battery powered push lawn mowers can cost up to a few hundred dollars more. Riding battery lawn mowers can cost up to a few thousand dollars more. You can purchase riding mowers that have several removable batteries or one large battery that charges in place. The time to charge a battery is about equal to how long you have used it.
Electricity costs for these tools are about 90% less than for gas-powered equipment. It costs four cents to recharge my push mower battery vs about 40 cents for a pint of gas in my old mower. In addition, there is no engine maintenance.
Lithium batteries do slowly degrade over time. Over about a decade, or 3,000 charging cycles, these batteries will lose 20% of their capacity. You can still use the batteries at this point, but will need to charge them more frequently.
Here are some things that you can do to both help the environment and save on energy and energy costs.
Purchase battery powered yard tools. Try to purchase tools that use the same battery/charger so you won’t have multiple chargers and can share batteries.
If your yard is small enough, consider purchasing a corded electric lawn mower. This is the most efficient way to cut your grass and you won’t have to charge a battery.
For larger yards, consider an electric push mower or self-propelled mower.
If you need a riding mower, single battery mowers are less expensive than removable battery mowers, but they take several hours to recharge. If you buy a single battery mower, make sure it can cut at least 25% more than your yard size to allow for battery degradation.
Bruce Saller is a retired engineer and active participant in the Fredericksburg Clean and Green Commission. This series provides practical steps we can all take to reduce our carbon footprint - and often save money.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit our website at the link that follows.
Weather and Traffic
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
In less than a year, FXBG Advance has become the news leader in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Stafford through its innovative mix of:
Twice-daily newsletter - At 6 AM and 5 PM every Monday through Friday, the Advance brings the most important news directly to your inbox.
Education Reporting - Adele Uphaus has won multiple awards for her coverage of education issues locally and across the state. Now, she brings her experience, insights, and expertise to the Advance, providing our citizens some of the finest education writing and reporting in the commonwealth.
Political Reporting - From council meetings to campaigns, and fundraising to finance, the Advance is returning the Fourth Estate to its rightful place as a government watch dog.
Breaking News - From court cases to high-profile government moves, the Advance is the first to inform residents.
Investigative Journalism - Last year, the Advance broke major stories around improperly filed election documents, misleading sample ballots, disenfranchising Spotsylvania Count School parents, and book bans.
Election Coverage - The Advance offered the most complete coverage of the 2023 election, with in-depth candidate profiles, daily tracking of events, leading debates, and pre-dawn to post-midnight Election Day coverage. And 2024 brings even greater coverage.
Spotlights - From local businesses to nonprofit organizations and regional leaders, the Advance brings the people who make things happen to your attention.
Multi-partisan Commentary - Martin Davis is a 20-plus-year journalist recognized for superior commentary and political writing; Shaun Kenney has his hands on the pulse of political leaders across the Commonwealth. Together, they bring an unparalleled level of analysis and insight into the issues that drive debate in our region.
Political Cartoons - Clay Jones is a nationally recognized talent who draws weekly for CNN. He has returned to Fredericksburg to level his critical eye and razor-sharp drawing at the topics which make us both laugh, and look closer at ourselves.
New Dominion Podcast - Each week, Martin Davis and Shaun Kenney interview guests from across the region and the state. Growing to over 1,000 listeners in just six months, NDP has become a leading force in political, cultural, and social discussion.
We thank each and every one of you who have made the Advance a part of your day, and we’re excited to say that more-exciting announcements are just around the corner as we continue to innovate and expand our coverage of the region.
The donations of individual readers have made this year possible. Please join the hundreds who are supporting excellence in journalism by subscribing for just $8 a month.
Where does your money go?
It goes to support the great journalists we have - like Adele Uphaus - and the ones we look to hire in the year ahead.
If you can spare $8 a month, we’ll be both grateful, and reward your trust in us with more journalism, more stories, and more connections to organizations and people who make our region a great place to live.
If you can’t, thank you for reading the FXBG Advance!, and consider sharing us with your friends.
In 2024, let’s build an even better Advance - together!
Thank you for reading and supporting FXBG Advance.
-Martin Davis, Editor-in-Chief
Dean - I bought a Kobalt, too, about the same time. It's been great. I did learn to not leave the battery on the charger all the time, so had to replace that about 2 years in. But at $120, it was a lot cheaper than buying a new lawnmower, and I recycled the battery. Tall grass can be a challenge, so I'm motivated to not let it grow so long :)
Thank you for this article. Air pollution produced by gas powered lawn equipment is one part of the problem. The noise produced by these machines is a significant environmental problem also. The use of chemicals on lawns needs to have stringent controls placed on them. There are health threats to people, pets and wildlife by overuse of these chemicals. Lawn service companies are more interested in making a near term profit than protecting the environment and the marketing information provided to the potential consumer is misleading. The Clean & Green Commission has an opportunity to educate homeowners to change their thinking from nurturing a green lawn to growing their own small ecosystem that supports all living creatures by shrinking their lawn and planting native species. In 1962, Rachel Carson said “In nature, nothing exists alone.”