[Toro44]

I’ll be curious if your time saving proves out in the real world. I can’t imagine operating battery or gas equipment provides any appreciable time savings. Even mixing fuel, you’ve got to stop to put gas in the truck at some point, mix more than enough until the next stop. Might be 2 gallons, might be 5. What if your crew is in a hurry and forgets to plug in the trailer? I get trying to be efficient and make every minute count, but you also don’t want to lie to yourself. Gas and maintenance savings I will buy. I’ve never seen an roi between gas an electric over the lifespan of a piece of equipment, but I haven’t looked for it either.

 

[Crazy 4 grass]

Panels wired in series or parallel?
What charge controller are you using?
LiFePO4 or agm? Ah capacity?

 

[Toro44]

Is it performing at full power immediately after starting? I ask because it seems common to putz around for a little waiting for a small engine to warm up.

Warm up? Let er rip, it’ll get warm.

 

[Hurryupelectric]

Warm up? Let er rip, it’ll get warm.

Won’t a 2 stroke bog a little at first?

 

[Crazy 4 grass]

Have you considered installing a more substantial panel system at your shop that could be gathering power all day to be used at night to charge your fleet?

 

[Hurryupelectric]

My br800ce's are good to go immediately. Just realised that with the battery setup you have to budget time to put the backpack battery on and then connect to trimmer, disconnect and connect to blower, and then disconnect and put backpack on hooks.

Why I refuse to use a backpack blower for mow n go, seems crazy to put one on to blow. Big plus to the consumer handheld units in my mind. Let’s see if op factored in this.

 

[Brucey]

Won’t a 2 stroke bog a little at first?

Some units are more cold blooded than others. I believe the echo 8010/9010 takes a while to warm up.

 

[Crazy 4 grass]

Is this a 12volt system? Did you consider 24?

 

[Brucey]

Have you considered installing a more substantial panel system at your shop that could be gathering power all day to be used at night to charge your fleet?

I was just thinking of the power demands for 18 110V 30A or 50A circuits. Can prob take advantage of nice cheap off peak rates overnight. Cheap for California at least.

 

[Hurryupelectric]

I’m waiting for the time to install my mppt charge control. It adjusts between the alternator and solar panel to use only as much alternator as needed. At the cost involved in op’s electric infrastructure I’d think a $400 ho alternator is easily justifiable. Would be a major contributing factor in a truly closed system.

 

[J. Baker]

Your true labor costs are more than $20/hr especially if you are playing by the rules…

Depends. That number is possibly close. All depends where his business is based out of.
I know labor costs better not be $53/hr like you claim. Either you’re bad at business, or grossly overpay your people. But I mean, you did create an all electric trailer for more than I have in my set up while claiming it saves money and time. That’s some goofy math right there.

 

[Scott87]

I’ll be curious if your time saving proves out in the real world. I can’t imagine operating battery or gas equipment provides any appreciable time savings. Even mixing fuel, you’ve got to stop to put gas in the truck at some point, mix more than enough until the next stop. Might be 2 gallons, might be 5. What if your crew is in a hurry and forgets to plug in the trailer? I get trying to be efficient and make every minute count, but you also don’t want to lie to yourself. Gas and maintenance savings I will buy. I’ve never seen an roi between gas an electric over the lifespan of a piece of equipment, but I haven’t looked for it either.
[/QUOTE]
I wouldn't be looking at this as a ROI saving 3 minutes a couple times a day but more along the lines I'm in california and this is where the industryis moving.

 

[Crazy 4 grass]

I was just thinking of the power demands for 18 110V 30A or 50A circuits. Can prob take advantage of nice cheap off peak rates overnight. Cheap for California at least.

Where are you getting these numbers?

 

[Brucey]

I guess there will be "hybrid" green setups where the truck is still gas before things go truly green with truck also being a battery vehicle. But then does even that setup count as true "green" if the electricity used to charge comes from a coal or gas powered power plant?

Right now I could claim partial green with my battery hedge trimmers and battery kombi unit but pretty sure my 454 gas engine on the towing truck and then gas/diesel mowers would tip the balance away.

 

[rippinryno]

Is it performing at full power immediately after starting? I ask because it seems common to putz around for a little waiting for a small engine to warm up.

that is in fact uncommon. I fire mine up and off she goes.

 

[Hurryupelectric]

But then does even that setup count as true "green" if the electricity used to charge comes from a coal or gas powered power plant?

As much as I hate to admit, green seems to be mostly an illusion. Economy of scale suggests that a power plant or large truck engine is much more efficient then multiple 2 strokes. While I’ve surrendered the battle of batteries being clean for numerous reasons I still hold firm on our current contribution to warming the planet. Super volcanos, astroid impacts and other cosmological events are on the cosmic scale while I believe we’re changing things in what essentially is a flash of the timescale of human existence. No my Ryobi string trimmer isn’t saving the world, neither is op’s 14 rigs but it’s still a thing in my understanding of the big things in the world.

 

[Brucey]

Where are you getting these numbers?

He has a 7500W inverter. The three backpack chargers are 510W units:

POWER+ Commercial Charger

When it’s time to recharge, the EGO POWER+ Commercial Series Rapid Charger is the fastest on the market. The intelligent battery control system constantly monitors each cell’s charge and temperature to deliver the most efficient and quickest charge.

egopowerplus.com

Then there's four greenworks dual chargers.

Pro 60V UltraPower 10 Amp Dual-Port Battery Charger

Compatible with all Greenworks 60V batteries

www.greenworkstools.com

Each of those can use up to 10A:

So if we assume 5A per backpack charger, there's 15A, and then 40A for the four dual greenworks chargers, we have a max demand of 55 amps. So a 120V 30A connection definitely won't be enough. Even a 50A connection would be borderline. If he has to add another charger for a rideon mower....

 

[Crazy 4 grass]

As much as I hate to admit, green seems to be mostly an illusion. Economy of scale suggests that a power plant or large truck engine is much more efficient then multiple 2 strokes. While I’ve surrendered the battle of batteries being clean for numerous reasons I still hold firm on our current contribution to warming the planet. Super volcanos, astroid impacts and other cosmological events are on the cosmic scale while I believe we’re changing things in what essentially is a flash of the timescale of human existence. No my Ryobi string trimmer isn’t saving the world, neither is op’s 14 rigs but it’s still a thing in my understanding of the big things in the world.

Whoa Nelly! Take that to the political forum

 

[OakNut]

My br800ce's are good to go immediately. Just realised that with the battery setup you have to budget time to put the backpack battery on and then connect to trimmer, disconnect and connect to blower, and then disconnect and put backpack on hooks.

Yeah, that backpack battery stuff is for the birds.
Aside from the unnecessary hassle, imagine how your back will feel even on a slightly warm day.

I guess the workers have no say in the matter though, so who cares - just do the job and like it.

 

[Hurryupelectric]

I will happily mention that I’ve been advertising on Nextdoor about my electric handheld service and getting quite a bit of calls. It’s sellable apparently.