Electric Mower - 'tis the season

My wife had the inspiration more than 10-years ago to buy an electric mower.  I think she was tired of dealing with gasoline and wanted a cleaner option for cutting the lawn.  It was a great move!

We've got a battery powered Toro.  I don't believe the model is offered any longer, but lighter/newer models are available from other manufacturers including greenworks, Makita, Stihl and others. 

Our mower is built around a 36V motor that relies on three lead-acid AGM batteries.  The mower is a bear to push owing to its weight.  I've been looking for a lithium replacement battery to help reduce the weight, but haven't found anything suitable as of yet.

Every cordless mower that I currently see on the market is powered by a lithium battery.  They are lighter and speaking generally are superior to their combustion counterparts in several other ways too.  They are:

Quieter
Easeir to start (no choke, no pull cord)
Easier to maintain (no gas, no oil, no carburetor, no spark plug, no winterization)

and they can be powered by cleanly produced electrons from the solar on our roof!

Here's a short video segment that shows the ease of starting and stopping the mower.

Off-grid Solar and Radiant In-floor Heating

This is a home that I installed an off-grid power system at near Elkins, WV.  I was "in the neighborhood" on Sunday and took a couple of snaps.
Red Creek Construction built the home in 2018/19.  It's a story-and-a-half on top of a full basement.  The electronics and batteries are in the basement.  Having adequate mechanical space for batteries and electronics is very important with an off-grid system.  This particular system uses most of a 8' X 12' room.

The solar PV array on the roof was sized to power the home with little or no assistance from the Kohler 14K generator.  There are twenty-three 295-watt SolarWorld PV modules.



The house has in-floor radiant heating and a deep deep well.  While the radiant system uses a LP boiler to heat the water it is also dependent on a series of electric pumps to circulate the water to the different heating zones.  The individual pumps are small in terms of their power draw, but the combined use of all the pumps running throughout a winter day can add up to a significant electrical load.  On similar homes with in-floor heat the daily energy consumption in the winter can be double what it is in the summer months.

Here the solar is sized to handle the full load in winter when heating demand is at its peak and solar exposure is at a minimum.  The upshot is that the shoulder and summer months enjoy an excess of energy production and the homeowners report that it is not uncommon for the battery bank to be fully re-charged before noon.

Electric Greg - Movie Short for Those Curious About Electric Cars

My couty's development director turned me on to a short film focused on one adventure athlete's personal challenge of transitioning to the exclusive use of an electric vehicle.  It's about 20 minutes in length and was a fun watch for our family.
 

Charging an Electric Vehicle with Solar - Pendleton County, WV

(Chevy Bolt EV getting a fill-up at home from a ClipperCreek Level II Charger)

Electric Vehicle (EV) charging has a new boost from a re-instated tax incentive that offers a 30% federal tax credit to businesses and homeowners who install EV charging stations before December 31, 2020.

The tax credit legislation also retroactively applies to EV chargers installed in 2017, 2018 and 2019.  To read a bit more about the legislation and find the IRS form you can take a look at pluginamerica.org

Solar also continues to enjoy an exceptional tax credit through 2020 at a rate of 26% of the installed cost.

 

This particular solar installation powers the charging of a Chevy Bolt as well as the energy needs of the classic Sears kit home in the background.  The system is grid-tied for net-metering with  MonPower, the local utility.

Solar in the Woods -Grantsville, MD

This 4.32-kW solar PV system was installed in 2011.  At that time, an arc of trees had to be cleared away from the garage to ensure that the system would operate at its peak. The house has recently been for sale and the owners asked a friend to fly some drone imagery for the sale advertisement. 

The image below shows the extent to which the surrounding forest was cleared to allow for shade-free operation of the solar.  I think it's helpful to see this birds-eye view years later as it illustrates the cleared area, but also shows shadows from the trees that were left.



The garage is south facing and I'd expect the image was captured close to noon.  By providing a clear skyview for their solar panels these customers were able to meet their goal of making more electricity than they required.  They are moving to a new home built to a Passivhaus standard where they expect to also be net-zero.