“Never look a gift horse in the mouth” – that’s an old saying I was taught as a child. Quite frankly I’m still not sure I understand what it means – but I think it applies here.
The Denver Metro Regional Air Quality Council partnered with Suncor Energy and Black and Decker to host the annual “Mow Down Pollution” event on May 11th, 2013. For $100 one could trade in their old gas-powered mower (in my case a Craftsman Eager-1 mower from the 1970s that was still mowing just fine albeit a bit wobbly in the wheels) for a brand new cordless battery-powered electric Black and Decker CM1836 (18 inch, 36 volt) mower with both mulching and bagging options that retails around $350. The Regional Air Quality Council found that 10% of the ozone in the local air comes from residential sources such as gas powered lawn mowers – so the annual event points out there are alternatives and provides an incentive for a small number (350) of residents to transition away from gasoline powered lawn mowers. Of course the Denver Water Department is also advising residents to minimize the size of their yard to conserve water after two consecutive years of drought.
As someone looking for more sustainable ways to live, you might ask, “Why are you even growing grass, let alone looking for an electric lawn mower?”
So we are looking into replacing some of our grass with permaculture, but grass is not all bad. It is a plant that harvests the Sun’s energy and converts a portion of this solar energy into chemical energy in the form of biomass using the photosynthesis process. I do know that grass extracts CO2 from the atmosphere (a good thing considering the current level has reached 400 ppm and homo sapiens insist on burning ancient hydrocarbon for their energy needs and introducing even more CO2 into the atmosphere for the foreseeable future. We know the resulting greenhouse effect and change in heat balance with the Sun is causing the average temperatures of the air, land and oceans to increase slowly but steadily.) I know the grass produces O2 (also a good thing to replace the oxygen that is disappearing as we burn carbon materials. )
Because we do not use any herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers on the property that we are the caretakers of, the yard is relatively ‘organic.’ So there are ample earth worms and natural micro-organisms in the soil. For example, we notice that after a brief rain shower, birds seem to enjoy holding conferences in our yard – apparently to harvest the wiggles that must come up for air after a rain. So when the grass is cut and mulched in place, organic material (without toxic human-created chemicals) is returned to the soil – to the micro-organisms that live within the soil.
But why buy an electric powered lawn mower?
We added rooftop solar PV to our home in 2011. The solar panels harvest sunlight and generate electric power. So we no longer ask Xcel to burn coal to generate electrical power for our energy needs. As solar farmers, we now harvest sunlight for all our energy needs. Rooftop solar is the right way.
We replaced our natural gas furnace with a geoexchange heat pump operated by electrical power from the rooftop solar PV panels. We no longer ask Xcel and it suppliers to frack shale to bring up methane to heat our home. Exchanging thermal energy with the Earth is the right way rather than burning natural gas.
We replaced our old car with a plug-in hybrid (Chevy Volt made in the U.S.) in 2012. So we don’t ask ExxonMobil to drill more oil wells for our around-town transportation needs. The first 40 miles of every trip are powered by electric (from the rooftop solar panels) and most of our trips in the metro area are less than 40 miles.
So the final step was to replace our old gas-powered lawn equipment with electric powered equipment. And Mow Down Pollution 2013 helped us do that. Here’s the deal. If I agreed to trade in my old gas powered mower, they would sell me a $350 electric mower for $100. That is a great deal (a real gift horse) that was hard to turn down.
The exchange event was well coordinated. As you entered the large parking lot, big signs welcomed you to the “Mow Down” and pointed the way to a pathway lined with orange cones leading to Station #1 – A friendly young women with a clip board greeted each arrival, asked for your name and confirmed which mower you had registered to receive. You were handed a slip of paper that was carried to check point #2 where you were asked to come to a stop, and immediately you heard someone opening the rear hatchback door and two husky men lifted my trusty gas powered mower from the car and tossed it into pile to be recycled. Then we drove on through the orange cones to the next check point where a man confirmed which mower you requested, asked how you would like to pay, check or credit card and then I heard the trunk open again. As I signed the credit card receipt, two other men loaded in the large box containing the new mower.
I was told, I could exit through the orange cones ahead, or I could pull into an adjacent area where Black & Decker was “showcasing” other cordless electric garden tools such as trimmers and blowers, roto-tillers, chain saws, etc. all at a discounted price – all driven by battery power. I ended up with a weed-wacker in the trunk as well.
The mower worked better than expected – I was able to mow/mulch the front and backyard (a typical city lot) on one battery charge and it handled areas of grass 3- 4 inches tall in places. I like the single lever height adjustment feature.
When I pushed the mower the first several feet, I thought to myself, “what a dog – this is not going to work.” As I continued to push the mower ahead despite its obvious lack of power, I started to see bare earth appear out from under the mower and I realized I had the mower sitting so low to the ground it was essentially in an unintentional “roto-tiller” mode. When I raised the wheel setting to leave an inch or so of grass rather than bare earth, the mower worked great and had plenty of power for the intended task of cutting grass, as opposed to digging dirt.So I’d recommend reading the instructions on how to assembly the mower and adjust the mowing depth.
Why am I switching to a new electric mower when my 30 year old gas powered mower was still operating?
The new electric mower and weed-eater we got through Mow Down Pollution completes the transition of our home FROM burning finite supplies of ancient hydrocarbons (and adding green house gases to our atmosphere) TO running off inexhaustible energy sources with zero emission.
Thanks, Mow Down Pollution 2013. We are starting to learn how to Live without Fire – without Burning ancient hydrocarbons and polluting our common air.
It’s just a start. Sustainable food production is the next item on our list.
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