Electric Lawn Care

ELECTRIC LAWN EQUIPMENT

The expo on April 30, 2022 was a great success!  It showcased a host of battery-powered lawn equipment and let folks see, try and buy at discounts!  View pictures below and more on social media.  Various City staff and representation were there too, testing out new electric blowers to help smooth the transition of all City blowers to alternatives!

Pictures from Electric Lawn Care Expo April 30, 2022

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Interested in hosting a future Electric Lawn Equipment Expo?

Please contact Katie at 724-3789 or mckaink@charleston-sc.gov, or Arielle at 958-4083 or agerstein@charlestoncounty.org.

Past Event Flyer (from April 20, 2022)

Resources

Resources (specific for COMMERCIAL lawn care companies)

Pioneers in Charleston!
Local Lawn Care Companies Using Electric Equipment

More Pollution than a Car

Lawn tools with a two-stroke engine can spew 20 to nearly 300 times the emissions of a car. 

twoStrokeEngine_Web ad car pollution

Source: Simon Mui/Natural Resources Defense Council.

Consider this: Running a commercial gas-powered leaf blower for just an hour produces about as much pollution as driving a 2017 Toyota Camry 1,100 miles, according to the California Air Resources Board.  

Similarly, the automotive review and shopping website Edmunds did an emissions test in 2011 which showed that half an hour of leaf blower use created as much pollution as 3,887 miles driven in a 2011 Ford Raptor.

Does the loud, inconsistent “hum” of a gas-powered leaf blower make you cringe?  Quieter options are available!


Leading By Example

Learn how the City of Charleston is transitioning staff leaf blowers to electric!

Benefits of Electric Equipment 

Produces less noise.  Electric tools operate at a much quieter decibel level, reducing how many people are affected by the noise and improving quality of life in our neighborhoods.  Plus, no more ear plugs.

Protects clean air, water and health.  Battery powered options don’t produce harmful fumes like their counterparts, which require gasoline and oil to be burned directly in the machine leaving the user and the neighborhood in a cloud of harmful air pollutants.  Electric alternatives also protect water quality as there is no risk of spilled gasoline at the pump, when refueling or performing maintenance. 

Combats climate change.  Gas-powered 2-stroke engines are extremely inefficient and often produce more greenhouse gas pollution than a car!  Electric equipment produces zero emissions on site, is already much cleaner than the alternative, and will even get cleaner over time by plugging into a grid that gets cleaner every day.  

Reduces maintenance costs and easier to use.  Electricity is much more affordable than gasoline, reducing operating expenses and eliminating trips to the gas station.  Electric machines also have fewer parts to service, require less routine maintenance and are known to have a longer lifespan than their counterparts.  Battery alternatives are typically lighter in weight making them more user friendly and appealing to a wider audience.

Reduces the need to store or travel with flammable fuels.  The fuel can be dangerous to maintain in the home and handle (transferring fuel into hot equipment, etc.).  It can also spill in transport. 

Proven reliable and powerful.  Battery technology has advanced exponentially in the last few years, test it out for yourself! 

Competitive pricing.  Electric machines retail for a similar price point and are available all over Charleston in your local hardware stores and online.  An extra battery adds to the cost, but if you purchase multiple tools from the same manufacturer platform, you can use one battery interchangeably in all of the tools. For each tool you purchase without a battery, you save around 30 percent.

The benefits are obvious: zero emissions and low noise.

Electricity is cheaper than gas.

Electric hand-held equipment starts on the first ‘button press’ every time.

The savings is in labor. Guys aren’t going to the gas station, they’re not filling up gas cans and spilling gas as they fill equipment.  There are no start up issues.

This ease and convenience is appealing to crews. There is no learning curve. There are no cord breaks or figuring out when to cold start, hot start or accidentally flooding the engine.  The button-push electric technology is a time-saver in the field.

Landscaping companies making the swap to electric have the opportunity to be among the first in their local areas to boast ‘eco-friendly’ along within their marketing efforts.

How far off are we from a fully electric future?  If I were a gambler, I’d imagine the safe bet would be by 2030 eighty percent of the commercial landscape industry will be running on battery power. 

The gas and oil mix together, and about a third of it does not combust.  As a result, pollutants that have been linked to cancers, heart disease, asthma and other serious ailments escape into the air.

There are 650 million gas-powered outdoor tools currently in use, and every single one of them contributes to climate change.

Try one piece of equipment at a time to get started