When I was a teenager, I liked to go hunting and hiking. One day after a very long hike and no luck bagging any Deer, i was very tired and just wanted to get to my Grandma's house and rest. Unfortunately I had a good 3 mile hike back to her house. I was not looking forward to that. On my way back I noticed a 4 wheeler coming up the road. It was my cousin coming up to find me. Man was I glad to see him. In stead of taking another hour to get back I was able to get a ride and be back in 10 minutes. He didn't come with his big diesel truck. He came up with a small Yamaha Blaster that had enough power to carry both of us down the hill. Even though at points we had to get off the machine to push it through snow, we got home and I was grateful for being able to use what resources we had to get there.
I tell that story because I feel like as Americans we do consume way to much energy to get us from point a to point b. I am not a green energy guy either. I really do think that climate change is a scam and the earth is self healing. Gods in control, we are not. That being said let's get back to my reasoning I am switching to electric on some of my gas powered machines.
I can't afford an electric car but I need a weed eater for my lawn. Last month I went out and bought a combo kit that included a leaf blower for 80 bucks and I love it.
It's not super powerful. It's not commercial grade and it's made out of plastic but yet It's going to save me money and its so convenient to use. Let me share all the reasons why this is a better choice than the gas powered option.
1st is fuel. Gas is overpriced! It's overpriced because we consume way too much of it! There are so many gas gussling trucks and SUVS carrying one or two people not giving much in return. Gas demand causes prices to increase. Fuel also tends to spill. I can't tell you how many times I have went out to shed to find half my gas gone from my tank leaking. With an electric battery powered unit, there is no fuel leaks!
2. Fuel delivery and availability.
I did a calculation what it would cost to go to the gas station and back to get fuel for my old weed eater. My car gets an average of 22.8 miles right now because I do alot of city driving. Gas where I am at is 4.15 a gallon that means a mile cost 18 cents. My gas station is 1.8 miles round trip. The cost to go get and bring the gas home is 32 cents. Oh but wait there's more. Assuming I have 2 cycle oil at home, at a 50 to 1 ratio that small gas engines will need 2 cycle oil bringing that gas up to 4.74 a gallon. Again this can be more expensive depending on your ability to find a decent price on 2 cycle oil. Then the weed eater takes 18 oz of fluid. At .074 an oz the gas machine cost a 1.33 to fill up plus that 32 cents to go get the gas had to be factored in.
Now here is where the numbers get a little hectic. I've never ran a weed eater non stop on gas but for this experiment I am going to pretend that a gas powered unit can run 3 times as long as my battery powered unit heck we'll go 5 times as long because it is more powerful. The cost to charge my batteries, from my house, not having to go to the gas station is less than 3 cent's. Yep. Fuel for my crappy weed Wacker that gets the job done is 3 cent's. At 5 times the cost that is 15 cents!
3rd and final. Durability and run time.
So far the gas has the battery powered beat. In power it does too but I point you to my story above. Really, how much power do you need? I do have two batteries to my unit due to buying a chainsaw 2 years ago. My weed Wacker did die about 20 minutes into its run time. But here's the thing. I had other things to do. It was simple for me to plug it in, finish my other yardwork, and return to finish the job. Plus I had double the run time because I was charging two batteries. The money alone and not giving money to the oil companies is more than enough to convince me I made the right decision.
So there it is guys there's my argument for why you should at least consider adding electric to your everyday tools.
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