毎日の家の革新はひっくり返る

Yesterday in Part 1 we described many, many environmental, cost and usability reasons why a solar charged lawn mower is the preferred choice over a gasoline, electric (plugged into the home outlet) and even manual lawn mower.

Today we would like to comment on why we ourselves purchased this lawn mower.

First the brand name of ‘Solaris’ belongs to the brand sold at one particular retailer. In fact, the solar charged lawn mower from Linamar Consumer Products is sold under the following different brand names at different retailers:

Now, we have a 12+ year old electric mower, the kind with the electric cord plugged into an electrical outlet in the house. It’s on, as they say, it’s last legs. For the past 3 years we had been living in a house with truly a ‘postage stamp’ sized lawn. Our current home, the one we are renovating, has 10 times the lawn to mow. The electric cord is more of an aggravation when mowing a lawn of this size. We wanted to replace the lawn mower last year but we could not find, although I am sure they are out there, an electric mower of at least 18 inches. This year, we had to do something.

Why this model? Well, after you read the following statistics from the manufacturer’s web site, from other referenced sources, you will hopefully understand why we wanted a lawn mower <b>whose operation did not consume non-renewable resources:</b>

• A gas powered lawn mower emits about 48 kilograms (106 points) of greenhouse gas in one mowing season (Government of Canada One-Tone Challenge)
• Gas powered lawn mowers are so inefficient that operating a gas powered lawn mower for one hour generates a similar amount of smog-forming emissions as 40, yes 40, new, yes new, automobiles each running for an hour (California Environmental Protection Agency, Air Resources Board, May 20, 1999)
• A typical 3.5 horsepower gas mower can emit the same amount of VOC’s, a key precursor to smog, in one hour as can a new car driven 340 miles (540 kilometers)(South coast Air Quality Management District)

With Earth Day soon upon us (April 22, 2008) how can we in all good conscious not do what we can, in our little corner of the world, to reduce our consumption of non-renewable resources.

If that is not enough to motivate a home owner to purchase a solar charged lawn mower, perhaps the features and usability of this one will.

Next time we will examine the features of this lawn mower, independent of the solar charging feature, which we believe also make this one stand out above the crown. To continue with this series of articles, simply select this link to Part 3.