Great setup, I'm in the process of transforming my trailer into solar as well. I have zero knowledge of what to do but I'll get it, thanks for sharing!
Hey thank you for the kind words! I knew little about what to do when I started too so I’m working on sharing everything I’ve learned to hopefully help others out with the same questions I had. Feel free if you have specific questions to ask, I’m happy to try and answer what I can!
I was explaining a concept like this to a co worker and he did not believe it was possible. Super cool to see what you are doing! It would be cool to see a breakdown of the cost and economics of your rig and business. Subbed, keep up the good work.
Hey thanks! You can send this to them as "proof of concept" haha. In my most recent video "Solar Powered Lawn Care Setup; Why Not Just Buy More Batteries" I get into just a little bit of the costs of doing a system like this on a trailer. It's not a detailed breakdown or anything, I'll definitely get to that as a lot of people would like to know, and I think it's important for people to have the full picture and determine for themselves if it's the right call. For me, it's not necessarily about going the cheapest route to solve a problem, but trying to find the most practical or elegant (function & form). I may not be making a ton of money doing this yet, but I can proudly say I'm not in debt and things are growing.
I'm sure you are planning to do this, but just in case, it would make sense to put a ventilation fan in the trailer.The batteries are going to degrade very quickly with that level of heat.
Ive been thinking about a setup like this for a while but wasnt sure how practical it would be but it seems like you got it dialed pretty well you should do a video on everything you did to youre trailer pls, plus a price breakdown.
I’d like to run some numbers myself just to get an estimate. I started fully electric so I don’t have the experience and details of running a gas lawn care company, only experience operating and maintaining the equipment over the years.
@@solarpunkstevefound a thread from 2013 were people said they spend about $700 a month on gas during peak season. One guy is a solo team and he said about $3,500 a year. If you don’t mind me asking what are your monthly cost? Because now I’m seriously interested in how much you’re saving especially considering gas prices right now.
Manual sweeping instead of blowing them might be more eco friendly. But then again i hate grass lawn owing, unnecessary waste of land (could be productive for planting edible or medicinal planting like urban garden) .. kudos for going electric tho
I have the leaf blower, Weedwhacker, snow blower chainsaw, nexus power station, both 2000 w and 400 W I also have the hundred watt LED light which is excellent for nighttime . I exclusively charge all of my batteries from my off grid solar system and it’s very rewarding. My electric car also runs on Solar. I’m really glad to see other people doing the stuff too.
I mow my parent’s lawn and their house is on a corner. I switched to electric mowing with the Greenworks 80v series. That included mower, leaf blower, an edger and a trimmer that uses the same batteries. I mentioned their corner lot. Because that eats up three batteries for a single mowing, I recharge while mowing and using eBay have added extra batteries and a extra charger. Really happy with the switch from gasoline to electric.
I love the setup and the solarpunk name is a sweet creative twist. An idea; Have you thought about high mounting your blower so that you don't have to pick it up from the ground? Maybe like a fold down shelf with a bungee cord? Great video & proof of concept.
The up front cost might be a bit higher, but the savings of not needing gas(including the need to drive to get the gas) you also don’t even have to pay for the charge!(not including maintenance) that will pay off!
Great build and awesome business model. 2 thoughts on your trailer. Without knowing the dimensions of your tailer you could look into changing your panels to 450watt panels, it may provide your additional power and that inverter can do up to 450v so I can handle those panels in series. You'd need a minimum of 3 though (minimum of 120v). Second that inverter can take 120v ac input so on rainy days and days you finish late you can still charge your batteries. You can set it to prioritize solar and supliment with grid power. It would ensure you're always topped up for the next day.
Does your trailer have ventilation? I was thinking "Dang I bet it gets hot in there with all that charging" and about 2 seconds later you said "whew, it is toasty in here!". Very cool idea for a lawn company, and a GREAT differentiator!
Just found this video, subbed and hit the bell :-) It's my first year in the game, running all petrol (gas) powered machines at the moment but this setup is making me think about doing something similar even if only for some machines next year. Greetings from South Wales (UK) :-)
Hey we all have to start somewhere! I started all electric, but then added solar and the onboard trailer battery later as I was taking on more clients and more jobs. I wonder how well onboard solar would work for you out in Wales, might be better to have panels at home and just bring battery/charging capacity with you? Also, do you tow a trailer or run out of a van? Sidenote: I've worked with a people from Wales at my previous job, good lads and ladies! Thanks for stopping by!
Nice set-up.... and finally a lawn professional that doesn't like blowing the clippings on to the street.... It really bothers me to see so many just blowing it to the neighbors or street when there done. 👏
I’ve only seen one or two lawn care professionals blow it down the storm drain, most do the right thing (that I’ve seen). I find the most of the culprits are actual homeowners that do their own lawn care. They either don’t own a blower, or they choose to blow it into the street off their driveways. *Blows* my mind. My area is really having a problem with our local estuaries getting too much nutrients and having algae blooms and subsequent fish kills and mass manatee deaths so it really hurts to see happen. It’s an area and topic I will focus on in the future, both for videos and trying to solve the issues in my community. But I have to get started somewhere and building a functioning electric lawn care business was step one, solar step two, TH-cam step three, and you’ll have to stick around for future steps 😄
I wonder if there is a positive to getting another battery pack for the trailer, so on cloudy days you will have enough juice to get you through the day.
I had to pause The Overanalyzers podcast to check out your video. Inspiring stuff! I shouldn't be surprised that Mike and Dan's other brother is this cool. Great editing. Subscribed
Hi Steve, can you tell me if you are going to go through the thick and thin of how you put together the solar power unit to charge your ego equipment? I am very much interested in going for a battery pack charger unit to fully solar powerSystem. I would love for you to do an involved step-by-step on how you created this BEAST of A solar power system. This thing is the bomb and it’s exactly what I need. That is if you don’t mind sharing!
Hey Triton! Yes, I will cover the nitty-gritty details of how I installed this system and how much everything cost. Working my hardest to get you guys some more content, but with summer here in Florida, university, my other project (@DeltaVCoffee) and working on the weekends for my friend in his general contractor business, I'm flat out! haha. But we'll get there, I promise!
Actually great videos! You will go places :-) Nice start! And yeah - as a EV fan I love electric mowing - I have all my equipment also only on batteries and idea with Solar charger is awesome. Maybe you may add one opening sheet of solar panels on the side of your trailer! That you can raise if needed and if there is evening, you may get some more sun if you will let it closed.
wow I'm surprised your batteries dont get over heated after all those re charges . My Son and myself have an Ego Mower and weed wacker and some times the battery gets to hot and dosn't charge . We have to wait until it cools down.
Nope! I think keeping them in the enclosed trailer actually helps a bit (shade). I've left a tool out in the sun a few times and the battery is baking hot just from sunlight. Most of my mower batteries don't get above ~115ºF but the blower batteries can get around ~125ºF. They actually "cool off" while charging, weirdly. I think just because they get put in the shade and there's a little fan blowing in the charger.
How does your tesla hold up pulling the trailer? Is the trailer capable of charging the tesla as well? I run a small lawn and irrigation business using greenworks equipment and we havent been able to find an electric vehicle capable of pulling all the weight efficiently... looking to kit our trailer similar to yours soon! Thanks for the videos.
Hey thanks for stopping by and always fun to hear from others doing something similar! Technically the trailer can charge the Tesla, but it’s such a small amount and a slow charge that it’s not really worth it and also not necessary for my situation since I just charge at home and have plenty of range for the whole day. The Model Y handles great, but my routes are maximum 40 miles round trip and I typically stay off the highway but have a few miles of ~60mph roads. Anyway, if you’re not trying to do 100miles or more a day with the trailer (although you could with supercharging) it’s a great option, just realize the tow capacity is 3500lbs with 350lb tongue weight so you need to be cautious of trailer choice and equipment loading. All my EGO stuff is fairly lightweight so in total I’m probably hauling ~2500lbs or a little less. A friend of mine runs his palm tree fertilizing business with a Model Y and a lightweight enclosed aluminum trailer and does about 40,000 miles a year. I think fully loaded he’s hauling ~1600lbs total. He stops at supercharges on some of his routes when driving around the state. Anyway, he loves it and says it’s saving him loads of money in fuel compared to his old truck.
I see this is the first video. I found it quite well done and enjoyed seeing how you deal with being all electric and using solar. EG4 has some great products and a couple of new batteries, though they are not cheap. BTW - I like your trailer with the foldup ramp kept inside. Looks like you have is setup quite nice. Even though you are all EGO and the batteries are interchangeable, it looks to be a 56 volts system. Some of the other electric Z-turn mowers use a power system based on lead-acid batteries with a more common voltage system. They can be converted to use LiFePo, giving them "all day" mowing capability and can be charged from your EG4 system.
Hey thanks very much for the kind words, it’s a challenge to make things fun and showcase the equipment. Next video will be a little more in detail and a bit of an educational overview of the system as I realize not everyone will have a solid grounding in batteries/inverters/solar etc. hopefully people will get something out of it and help them make a decision on if this setup is for them. Yeah the trailer was a bit of a challenge with the double doors instead of the ramp door most people use. But it’s working fine for now. A converted to LiFePO4 mower would be awesome as your cycle life would much greater, and I’ve thought about doing that one day. For my use case, I want liFePO4 equipment that’s relatively lightweight and charges quickly and I would keep the heavy storage batteries on the trailer. But I think most manufacturers are trying to cram as much battery into their equipment so that people can run longer on one charge. I like the flexibility of my system, right now I’m all EGO, but I don’t have to be, I can plug in anything and charge it up.
You must have gone to film school. Very well done. As a non-lawn care guy I found the entire thing very entertaining. However... Master Lock to secure all you need to make a living??? Please upgrade that for your own benefit. Safety never takes a day off. Neither does crime :)
Interesting set up. How are the blades holding up on the mower? I've seen some other comments on other videos that they are not the best quality, and get dinged up pretty quickly and often. Resulting in a lesser quality cut.
They seem to be doing fine, definitely depends on the type of terrain you’re running over. I’ve got some vacant properties that chew them up a little more than the small well-kept lots. The cut quality mostly suffers when the grass gets really thick, regardless of sharpness. It’s a great product for the homeowner or individual trying to start their own small lawn care business, but has some ways to go to be a proper commercial rig in my opinion. Still a solid little unit.
Enjoyed the video, I have picked up an electric weed wackier an a blower, But my friend I suggest locking your wallet in the vehicle or buying pants with button down pocket flaps U do not want to lose that wallet, it’s a real pain to get all the documents replaced Guess how I know that fact,
Haha yes, the wallet flying out was a product of filming the video. I kept pulling my phone out of my holster thing and the wallet would come out of it. I’ve since corrected that. Glad you liked the video!
You need to find a fix for your wallet, just leave it on the car dude. Amazing content, I got inspired to do the same on my mobile detailing business. Liked and suscribed
Thanks! It’s since been fixed haha. That was the first time trying to film and I was using my phone, so each time I pulled the phone out of my holster thing throughout the day, I risked my wallet falling out. I thought about cutting that issue out of the video, but thought it was a pretty fun real-world drama I experienced haha.
Couldn’t you add more solar panels on the side of of your trailer maybe even retractable like an awning , add more batteries for storage and do level 2 charging on your Tesla ?
Technically all doable, but being built for the purpose of mowing lawns, you're constantly moving from property to property, so if you had something that deploys, there's a chance you might forget, or it might block traffic etc. But, would be a great setup for a camping rig!
We all have to start somewhere! Thanks for watching and following along. Hopefully if I continue making top notch videos I'll continue getting top notch followers like yourself ;)
I thi k this is an amazing setup for southern states. But not practical in my area with the hills and growth of grass. I had to double cut most properties this year with the amount of rain we had.
Thanks! It does fit “The Sunshine Stare” quite well. However, the summer down here was tough, we had record heat, rain nearly every day, and things just wouldn’t stop growing. That meant I had to double cut some properties/areas too. Luckily I had enough power storage, but I could always add more if I needed it. An option up north might be to just have lots of battery storage and not solar. Again it might not make sense to do it right now with electric equipment being early days, but something to think about for the future maybe.
Good eye, I will cover that in an upcoming video as weight was a major concern when setting up the trailer. My tow vehicle (Tesla Model Y) has a tongue rating of 350lbs, and tow capacity of 3500lbs, so it's a careful balance keeping a healthy amount on the tongue without overloading it or having too much in the rear and creating an unsafe towing condition. My solar added a fair amount up front, plus the push mower, ego batteries, spare tire, etc. So the storage battery was placed in the rear to offset that a little. Anyway, I've got you covered, but thanks keeping an eye out and making sure I'm safe! Let me know if you spot anything else!
How is the model y working out for you? I also have an all electric lawn care business but use an f150 but looking at a model y for a daily/ back up tow rig for my 6x10 enclosed.
Really well so far. I also use mine for personal driving and it cleans up pretty nicely for that. If your trailer is single axle then you should be good, it’s tow capacity is 3500lb so you could tow a tandem axle trailer, but a lot more weight could go in the trailer than the car *should* be towing. The tongue weight is 350lb so you do need to be careful with how you load the trailer. I installed the trailer hitch myself and figured out how to wire directly into the cars existing harness but I would probably recommend just paying for the tow package from Tesla, it’s a lot easier but more expensive than doing it yourself. Lastly expect it to cut your range in half. I stay off the highway but still have to drive 60mph into town and my route isn’t the best so round-trip I’m doing 30-40miles which will use ~30% of the battery. It’s the aerodynamics, not the weight that gets you. Oh also, there’s a crazy amount of storage in the car and I’ve used it to haul 10ft long metal rails with the rear hatch fully closed, and thrown all my landscaping tools in the back when I’m towing my other trailer. Bottom line is it’s a great vehicle for towing if you have realistic expectations and aren’t trying to drive across country lol. Lastly I charge at home so that keeps the costs down vs supercharger.
Here in my area in Florida it's the norm to leave it on the ground and it degrades so quickly with our heat/humidity that it's never an issue. I do see some homeowners that bag their clippings but it's not typical and not really necessary.
Apart from the weight (using 2x 6ah batteries) I like it quite a bit. I had been using the 765cfm handheld blower from EGO for over a year and was getting tired of holding it for 15+ minutes on my corner lot properties with sandy sidewalks and having it cut out in the Florida heat after 10 minutes of constant operation (not even on "turbo"). So this is an improvement for sure, but comes at a pretty steep cost at ~$800.
I invested my own money into the equipment to get started, already had bought the car from my previous job, the trailer is 17 years old and long term loaned by a family member to me and I did a whole bunch of work to it to make it look nice (painted interior and exterior myself), as well as replaced the axle and added electric brakes etc. I survived off savings for a long time and any money I made from the business I put straight back into it, it was rough in the beginning but I’m not in debt, and now the business is covering my living expenses and car payment/insurance etc. and allowing me to invest back into it again. I’m very good at living on pretty much nothing so that has helped keep me above water. I will say even with all the difficulties of starting a fully electric lawn care business from scratch, it’s really rewarding. And I love the fact that I don’t have to buy any gas or deal with that stuff anymore. Just my feeling though.
I checked for incentives and asked my CPA to check as well but neither of us found anything here in Florida (or Federal) at the time that I was setting this up. Doesn't mean there wasn't any or won't be any, but I paid full price for everything. Of course because it's a business asset you can claim some of it on your taxes, but unfortunately I couldn't get the Federal tax credit of 30% for solar and battery systems because it's not going on my house. However, I do believe the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentive of $7500 includes electric mowers now, but they must have more than 7kwh of battery onboard so this wouldn't apply to my equipment anyway. I know at least California has their own separate incentives for electric lawn care equipment, and I'm sure other States do or will follow suite. So depending on where you are you might have something available at the state level or even federal if you're getting a large mower with a big battery pack. As for out of pocket costs, I haven't totaled up absolutely every little piece of hardware/electrical wiring I spent money on (I will later when I do the video showing the installation process) but just a basic cost on solar, battery, and inverter it was about $3500. I'll cover that in the next video where I show an overview of the system and a demonstration of it's capabilities etc. Hope this helps and thanks for checking out the video!
You should keep a squidgy and rod mop on telescoping boom poles with right angle attachments on the truck to be able to quickly remove water and dust from your panels without a ladder. Just a small amount of condensation/droplets and debris/dust can greatly cut down on a panel’s efficiency. You may have enough battery to spare. Or maybe it’s just general maintenance you do at the beginning or end of each day. Just a recommendation. Love what you’re doing either way. Very innovative! Well done sir.
Hello, this is Milton in the Bolt that you chatted with today while you were finishing work. FPL uses solar to charge my entire house and the Bolt. I also have an electric bike. Great idea to set up this on youtube. Keek up the good work and let me know if you need help in any way. Im retired so I have free time.
Hi Milton! Thanks for stopping to talk! Was nice meeting you and glad you like the idea! More videos coming soon! And thanks for the offer, I’ll let you know if I need anything.
Good call, I’ve been thinking about it but you know how those things go, you just get used to operating without it. Maybe I should listen to my own advice of safety never takes a day off haha. Thanks for looking out for me!
We have multi million dollar home neighborhoods where they would definitely all pay more for someone to come by with electric machines just for the quiet. Ive been surprised nobody has done this setup here!
Where you are from is green friendly, they don’t even believe in watering their yard. Do you do a lot of fall/leaf clean ups? Never apologize as well as feel bad about your set up. We all have to start somewhere.
How safe is the Ego equipment to use in the rain 🌧? Also does your system automatically shut the charger off when it reaches 100 percent to avoid overload on the batteries 🔋? Thanks for your assistance.
I guess I didn't really explain it in the video, but I don't mow when it rains because when the grass is wet, it doesn't cut well, it sticks to EVERYTHING including the sidewalk and road so it's hard to blow it off, then you can also end up carving ruts in someone's yard because the ground gets soft. Not to mention here in Florida, it can rain HARD in a matter of minutes and you get lots of lightning too. So it's not because I'm worried about getting shocked from the ego stuff, everything seems to be well protected. I still don't like my equipment to be out in the rain because it can eventually rust. However, I have left my string trimmer out in the pouring rain with the battery on it and mowed in the rain a few times just trying to finish up the last of a yard or two, and also I wash down the mower occasionally and no issues thus far. Not sure if you're asking about the solar/battery or the ego equipment, but either way: yes, the inverter/charger shuts the charging down automatically once the battery is topped up.
It’s not cheap, but I already had the Tesla for personal use and was bought while at my previous job, but I got the trailer used, did a bunch of work to it myself, and have been slowly adding equipment and tools as I go and as the business makes money. So it’s half investment, half bootstrap, if you will. But as it stands today, lawn care is my primary source of income, albeit much less than I used to make. But the growth potential is much higher. Anyway, I’m not trying to say people should drop what they’re doing/using and go get/do what I did, but for me this whole thing is an experiment to see what works and what doesn’t, and to share. That way we have a better product and experience in the future. I think for lots of people, a hybrid setup will make a lot of sense until costs come down for electric equipment. That being said, California is mandating electric for lots of things but also offering huge incentives. So maybe that sort of thing will happen more frequently elsewhere. Who knows.
Tough question to answer. I didn’t come from gas lawn care so I didn’t know what I *should* be charging. I started out with a number in my head based on things I found online, then quickly realized my area doesn’t support that kind of price so had to adjust down significantly. That put a damper on things but I’ve been slowly building my reputation as quality rather than quantity so most of my clients are all word of mouth. For those, you can charge more because it’s just you, you are the one in control of quality and consistency that they desire and are willing to pay more for. Tough to do the same thing in a volume business. Anyway, I think I’m at or just above the price of other lawn care services in my area, but not purely based on being *electric*. More so that they like me and/or the work I do and are willing to pay more for that. The electric and quiet are an added bonus. Hope that helps. As a note, quite a few of my clients are work from home or night shift or retired, so maybe they do really value the electric, but so far no one has been knocking down my door willing to pay a bunch more because they don’t like gas stuff. Your mileage may vary, and given how crappy my town is, you might have much better results. Hope this helps.
Probably, but not as much as a full discharge would. These battery chemistries don't like to be drained to below 10-20% if you can help it. You can argue they shouldn't be fully charged to 100% either (somewhere in the 30-80% cycle range is preferred, but practically speaking, I don't have a good way to keep them from charging up to 100% so I just let them. If I was a homeowner I would probably baby them for longevity, in my case I'm taking a risk they might fail early, but I'm treating everything like someone would while running a business. You don't have time to baby the batteries, you have to be out there on a property making money and taking on more jobs and running equipment hard. So I honestly don't do anything special to my batteries or equipment, I want to see it survive or fail. I can always get something different and learn from what did or didn't work and keep moving. It's expensive and risky, but I personally feel it's worth trying.
So in my other video: th-cam.com/video/6gmQ4YBpQm8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=8WpcwtYbZ4fDcjm0 I show that I can actually charge the car, but I normally don’t because all that power is being used by my lawn care equipment. Also it would take an incredibly long time to charge.
It uses roughly double the energy compared to not towing, slightly more than double if you’re driving on the highway. It has plenty of power to tow it, but aerodynamics are the main killer. Later I’m going to be trying some improvements to minimize that and will of course do some videos. But right now it’s not a big concern as I’m not going more than 40 miles in a day and staying off the highway.
It is pretty crazy how much energy is available in gasoline, it’s a shame that internal combustion engines are at best around 18-20% efficient at converting that into usable work. Electric motors and batteries are much more efficient at using and storing energy (~97-95%, respectively), but unfortunately battery tech hasn’t progressed enough to be able to store large amounts of energy in a small (lightweight) form factor. However, I do find it kind of crazy that my little solar panel array on top of my trailer can run an entire solo operator lawn care business, just goes to show how efficient those electric motors are. Of course like you said when it’s cloudy I don’t make as much power, but I can mow in the rain, I just choose not to mow when it’s a torrential Florida downpour with lightning striking all around you lol.
ICE engines are becoming more efficient as materials and technology improves, some are well above 30% for consumers while there are industrial applications approaching 50%. With petroleum fuels the ceiling is much higher than any battery technology that exists now or on the horizon, there is simply nothing that approaches the chemical potential energy storage that gasoline and diesel enjoy. Not only in storage but also in transferring that energy, a standard gas pump moves roughly 300kWH in a matter of minutes. Not only are there no batteries that can accept a charge at that rate, there's not even a safe way of connecting such power outside of utility-level controls. Battery-power works for certain applications, your setup works for you but wouldn't scale for large crews working tens of yards every day.
Awesome setup 👌 totally subbed and can't wait for more content. 😀 Strap down that runaway wallet! Lol 😆 Quick question will you be adding more battery storage as a just in case solution? 🤔
No kidding, that wallet loves to misbehave.. Thanks for following! To answer your question, the next step I could take if I needed more, would be to plug the trailer in at home after a day of mowing, this would allow me to charge up the onboard battery and the equipment batteries if they were low and solar wasn’t enough. At some point if I was finding that even that wasn’t enough, I could definitely add more onboard battery capacity, but I’m somewhat limited on charging speed, so if things were really crazy, I guess I could have a set of batteries charging in the trailer all the time, and swap them out in the equipment. But I think this setup is ideal for a solo operator, maybe two person crew, we’re not quite ready for mainstream with large crews or high volume yards.
But electric ain't the future huh? I love electric cars trucks vans leaf blowers lawn mowers it don't matter but it's battery powered that's badass. With internal combustion engines you have to wait for the power to build with electric motors you get it all at once. And quite violently if you wish.
Yeah I really miss having to do oil changes, mess with belts, fuel and air filters, mixing gas and oil, and pull starting a chainsaw 30 times before it fires up. Not to mention the *smell* was to die for, I’m getting choked up just thinking about it. All this electric stuff is too easy and it doesn’t make me feel like a man. It’s starting to crack my fragile EGO.
Yeah both the inverter/battery and the mower/tool chargers will shut down automatically when full. And they all have thermal monitoring systems and will shutdown/stop charging if too hot, but so far even in our ridiculously hot summer here recently in Florida, everything has continued to work through the heat. Meanwhile I've had to stop due to heat exhaustion lol. I need a battery powered personal air conditioning jacket or something.
thats honestly really cool and probably the future of landscaping lol. And trust me I know how hot it was in florida this summer, my buddy lives down there and he said they would have to stop work outside at like 1pm cause its just so hot @@solarpunksteve
I mow my father’s yard with an E-Go mower. I love renewable resources. I also drive a Tesla this hits every spot. Keep it up love watching these videos!!!
I love your setup, great use of solar. I recommend you get yourself a refrigerator for the trailer. Having cold fluids are a godsend when working in the heat. A refrigerator adds the ability to carry foods for lunches as well.
While this is all really cool and there are some other nice benefits to electric mowers, the entire idea of keeping a lawn is contradictory to all of this.
I was wondering when I might get another solarpunk ;) One problem at a time my friend, hard to convince people to replace their lawns unless you fully understand the problem from all sides, including the lawn care professional's, which is why I wanted to start a lawn care business. Hoping that with some luck, I can bring people along the journey from both sides, homeowners and professionals and find *solutions*. Ignoring all else, lawn care in the US alone uses about 800 million gallons of gasoline every year, so solar powered lawn care isn't a bad starting point, in my humble opinion.
Just wanted to point out its best to run the battery down to red. That way the cells last longer. You get like 1000 charge cycles before degradation. Everytime you charge the same cell, it causes wear. If you already knew this, just disregard, but if not I hope its more helpful than an annoyance.
Are you thinking of Nickel Cadmium (“Ni-Cad”) batteries which require you to discharge fully so it doesn’t develop a “memory”? For these (and most other lithium ion batteries), they can be charged at any point and do not require that they be drained before recharging, which is also stated in EGO’s battery manuals. Now, EGO doesn’t specifically state the chemistry (NCA or NMC etc.) other than lithium ion but typically it’s not good practice to drain a lithium ion battery completely, nor is it good to charge it to 100% all the time, but since I don’t really have a way to control the max charge other than manually removing it from the charger when its ~80% and that’s simply not practical when mowing lawns all day I just opt to let them charge up to whatever level before I pull them back out again. I agree with you they will suffer from degradation, and I’ll cover this in another video at some point, but I would actually prefer manufacturers to use lithium *iron* phosphate batteries (heavier per Watt hour but cycle life is much greater) and just make the batteries a little smaller/less capacity and I can just keep charging them all day and not have to worry about degradation. Hope this made sense, and if I’m incorrect please let me know.
Thanks! I have been thinking of the charge cycles all wrong. I to have an all-Ego electric lawn service. I had been charging only when in the red, which is annoying to keep up with. I don't have solar, but I have 40 batteries.
40 batteries! Wow! Right now I’m working on my video of my solar/battery/inverter setup and I’ll cover the cost difference of that equipment vs buying more batteries. How have you been liking using the ego mower?
Actually very interested in this new channel. Would love to see some content on how you got your clients, did you build the tesla/trailer setup before starting? Very nice stuff tho i can see this channel doing well!
Thanks so much for the kind words! I’m working hard to bring you some good informational content so people can decide if this will work for them or how to go about doing it, stay tuned! To answer some of your questions quickly. I started small, just one client who was a friend of a friend, built up from there. Had to install the trailer hitch on my Tesla myself because I didn’t originally buy it for this purpose, also didn’t have solar and batteries until later once I was reaching the point of pushing any new clients to new days because I was running out of charge.
Would be cool, I’ve watched their stuff previously. Maybe you should make the introduction for us 😉. Always better when it comes from someone else. Also, I’ll see you September 30th! Looking forward to it. Just letting you know I will refer to you as foamy Dave, even in person 😂
Awesome set up! I’ve been on the fence on getting battery powered lawn gear. Although I do not mow multiple lawns like you but I would like to get batt powered gear for my own lawn. You may have convinced me! I also subscribed to your channel!
I just found your channel. It’s on par with what I have been doing this year. All in with EGO but minus the solar power. I run charged up a series of LIPO4 batteries I charge at night. Going solar in 2024. I can use the help researching Solar!!! Thank you Sir! Steve from North Carolina 😊😊😊😊😊
Hey that's awesome! So do you bring the LifePO4 batteries with you? If so what are you using to convert that into something you can use to charge your ego equipment? A small inverter? Us Steve's are everywhere haha.
@@solarpunksteveIt’s a DIY battery bank with 3000w inverter to AC power. I use a dc to dc charger to charge it up at night. The battery bank is a 300ah. I have 20 customers and it is my first season. I absolutely love mowing!!! I also work for the DOD and do this in the afternoon. Get ready to pull the trigger on an EGO Z6 and your solar power system is just the ticket I need. I mow till December in NC and would be a good project from Dec to end of Feb. Currie am run EGO LM2142 duel port battery with 800 lbs. of torque. I have extreme route density so (2) 5 ah batteries does about 4 yards for me… with 2 more 5 ah batteries on stand by. Would love to chat with you one of these days? Not to mention your 8 hours away from me!!!
Super cool you've got a mobile charging rig, not many do! Yeah would be happy to chat sometime! I love hearing what other people are doing/working on. Just shoot me an email through my website sometime. It's in the about page on my channel, or just find it on the side of my trailer in the video. TH-cam doesn't like seeing links to things in the comments usually.
You’re a genius! perfect setup! I can see a bunch of these in California eventually. CA is banning the sale of petroleum powered gardening equipment after 2024. The issue for the transition is the cost of those tool batteries and this just solved the problem.
Not a crazy idea in Sunny Florida, and even less crazy in desert states out west. In the North East or Great Lakes states you won't be able to rely on solar as much, but since the Summer is the main growing season there it can still offset costs substantially over time. A better answer to your quiz: DANGER never takes a day off, therefore you should always EMPLOY safety!
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Great setup, I'm in the process of transforming my trailer into solar as well. I have zero knowledge of what to do but I'll get it, thanks for sharing!
Hey thank you for the kind words! I knew little about what to do when I started too so I’m working on sharing everything I’ve learned to hopefully help others out with the same questions I had. Feel free if you have specific questions to ask, I’m happy to try and answer what I can!
Can you do a walk through and show us what you're running? Like the panels, inverters etc. I'm also trying to do this. Thank you and awesome content
Absolutely! I'm editing the video as fast as I can. Stay tuned!
Awesome!! Thank you and looking forward to more content from ya
Your wearing a camo shirt and trying to be another solar liberal 🤣🤣
I was explaining a concept like this to a co worker and he did not believe it was possible. Super cool to see what you are doing! It would be cool to see a breakdown of the cost and economics of your rig and business. Subbed, keep up the good work.
Hey thanks! You can send this to them as "proof of concept" haha. In my most recent video "Solar Powered Lawn Care Setup; Why Not Just Buy More Batteries" I get into just a little bit of the costs of doing a system like this on a trailer. It's not a detailed breakdown or anything, I'll definitely get to that as a lot of people would like to know, and I think it's important for people to have the full picture and determine for themselves if it's the right call. For me, it's not necessarily about going the cheapest route to solve a problem, but trying to find the most practical or elegant (function & form). I may not be making a ton of money doing this yet, but I can proudly say I'm not in debt and things are growing.
If he ran with 300-500W panels (home roof or commercial ) would be even better!
Oh it's possible, and people love it too, much quieter in the mornings!!
@@solarpunkstevethe best part of not being in debt with a business investment is how little the nitpicks and complaints matter. Keep on killing it
Really cool to see another fully electric guy out crushing goals and lawns! Dope trailer setup def goals!
Thank you! Keep up the good work out there in Jax! Solar/inverter/battery walkthrough video coming soon!
I'm sure you are planning to do this, but just in case, it would make sense to put a ventilation fan in the trailer.The batteries are going to degrade very quickly with that level of heat.
Good idea
Highly recommended. Batteries don’t like being hot or too hot when not in use.
Tell that to Tesla.....
you need a microwave or toaster oven in ur trailer to warm up lunch
Selling the trailer fully assembled in California would be a huge money maker with their mandated electric for commercial landscapers
No way they actually mandated that 🤦
@@TheBestEverEverEveryeah for new purchases
Ive been thinking about a setup like this for a while but wasnt sure how practical it would be but it seems like you got it dialed pretty well you should do a video on everything you did to youre trailer pls, plus a price breakdown.
You should put a tesla charger on the front of the trailer The use of the extra power that you are producing
Wondering how much you save in time at pump and fuel costs.
I’d like to run some numbers myself just to get an estimate. I started fully electric so I don’t have the experience and details of running a gas lawn care company, only experience operating and maintaining the equipment over the years.
@@solarpunkstevefound a thread from 2013 were people said they spend about $700 a month on gas during peak season. One guy is a solo team and he said about $3,500 a year. If you don’t mind me asking what are your monthly cost? Because now I’m seriously interested in how much you’re saving especially considering gas prices right now.
Manual sweeping instead of blowing them might be more eco friendly. But then again i hate grass lawn owing, unnecessary waste of land (could be productive for planting edible or medicinal planting like urban garden) .. kudos for going electric tho
I have the leaf blower, Weedwhacker, snow blower chainsaw, nexus power station, both 2000 w and 400 W
I also have the hundred watt LED light which is excellent for nighttime . I exclusively charge all of my batteries from my off grid solar system and it’s very rewarding. My electric car also runs on Solar. I’m really glad to see other people doing the stuff too.
What a sick video and set up. I'm subbed. I've actually been playing with trickle charging my OPE haha but you're next level dude!
Thanks so much! I'm shooting the video for my solar panel/inverter/battery overview right now! Maybe you'll get some ideas!
One of the most underrated channels on TH-cam
lol thanks. I just got started, hopefully I can get to that appropriately rated level soon 😉
I mow my parent’s lawn and their house is on a corner. I switched to electric mowing with the Greenworks 80v series. That included mower, leaf blower, an edger and a trimmer that uses the same batteries. I mentioned their corner lot. Because that eats up three batteries for a single mowing, I recharge while mowing and using eBay have added extra batteries and a extra charger. Really happy with the switch from gasoline to electric.
I love the setup and the solarpunk name is a sweet creative twist. An idea; Have you thought about high mounting your blower so that you don't have to pick it up from the ground? Maybe like a fold down shelf with a bungee cord? Great video & proof of concept.
The up front cost might be a bit higher, but the savings of not needing gas(including the need to drive to get the gas) you also don’t even have to pay for the charge!(not including maintenance) that will pay off!
This set up is so cool! Awesome vid
I want a set up like your's.
Great build and awesome business model. 2 thoughts on your trailer. Without knowing the dimensions of your tailer you could look into changing your panels to 450watt panels, it may provide your additional power and that inverter can do up to 450v so I can handle those panels in series. You'd need a minimum of 3 though (minimum of 120v). Second that inverter can take 120v ac input so on rainy days and days you finish late you can still charge your batteries. You can set it to prioritize solar and supliment with grid power. It would ensure you're always topped up for the next day.
Have you thought about a ford e-Transit with panels ? I think you could fit your whole setup in there.
Super awesome to see everything electric no fumes no exhaust smell. how much do you think this whole set up would cost for a start up?
Great concept! How much do you think the savings are compared to gasoline based operation?
My question is how big of a loan did you have to pull out for all that equipment, and what are the gas cost savings?
Also, I’m a fan of solar charging… you might benefit from adding a set of panels on the rear doors…
Does your trailer have ventilation? I was thinking "Dang I bet it gets hot in there with all that charging" and about 2 seconds later you said "whew, it is toasty in here!". Very cool idea for a lawn company, and a GREAT differentiator!
Just found this video, subbed and hit the bell :-) It's my first year in the game, running all petrol (gas) powered machines at the moment but this setup is making me think about doing something similar even if only for some machines next year. Greetings from South Wales (UK) :-)
Hey we all have to start somewhere! I started all electric, but then added solar and the onboard trailer battery later as I was taking on more clients and more jobs. I wonder how well onboard solar would work for you out in Wales, might be better to have panels at home and just bring battery/charging capacity with you? Also, do you tow a trailer or run out of a van?
Sidenote: I've worked with a people from Wales at my previous job, good lads and ladies! Thanks for stopping by!
Nice set-up.... and finally a lawn professional that doesn't like blowing the clippings on to the street.... It really bothers me to see so many just blowing it to the neighbors or street when there done. 👏
I’ve only seen one or two lawn care professionals blow it down the storm drain, most do the right thing (that I’ve seen). I find the most of the culprits are actual homeowners that do their own lawn care. They either don’t own a blower, or they choose to blow it into the street off their driveways. *Blows* my mind.
My area is really having a problem with our local estuaries getting too much nutrients and having algae blooms and subsequent fish kills and mass manatee deaths so it really hurts to see happen. It’s an area and topic I will focus on in the future, both for videos and trying to solve the issues in my community. But I have to get started somewhere and building a functioning electric lawn care business was step one, solar step two, TH-cam step three, and you’ll have to stick around for future steps 😄
I wonder if there is a positive to getting another battery pack for the trailer, so on cloudy days you will have enough juice to get you through the day.
Being from Miami, it sure looks like you’re in S. Florida somewhere
A few hours north, up in Titusville. I spent a lot of time down in Miami when I was younger, crazy place haha.
Yes alot of stupidity in Florida.
If I had a lawn, I would look for landscaper who uses battery-electric equipment.
I had to pause The Overanalyzers podcast to check out your video. Inspiring stuff! I shouldn't be surprised that Mike and Dan's other brother is this cool. Great editing. Subscribed
Thanks for coming this way! Yeah my brothers are pretty cool guys. Glad you enjoy what we’re sharing and working on! More to come!
Hi Steve, can you tell me if you are going to go through the thick and thin of how you put together the solar power unit to charge your ego equipment? I am very much interested in going for a battery pack charger unit to fully solar powerSystem. I would love for you to do an involved step-by-step on how you created this BEAST of A solar power system. This thing is the bomb and it’s exactly what I need. That is if you don’t mind sharing!
Hey Triton! Yes, I will cover the nitty-gritty details of how I installed this system and how much everything cost. Working my hardest to get you guys some more content, but with summer here in Florida, university, my other project (@DeltaVCoffee) and working on the weekends for my friend in his general contractor business, I'm flat out! haha. But we'll get there, I promise!
Actually great videos! You will go places :-) Nice start! And yeah - as a EV fan I love electric mowing - I have all my equipment also only on batteries and idea with Solar charger is awesome. Maybe you may add one opening sheet of solar panels on the side of your trailer! That you can raise if needed and if there is evening, you may get some more sun if you will let it closed.
wow I'm surprised your batteries dont get over heated after all those re charges . My Son and myself have an Ego Mower and weed wacker and some times the battery gets to hot and dosn't charge . We have to wait until it cools down.
Nope! I think keeping them in the enclosed trailer actually helps a bit (shade). I've left a tool out in the sun a few times and the battery is baking hot just from sunlight. Most of my mower batteries don't get above ~115ºF but the blower batteries can get around ~125ºF. They actually "cool off" while charging, weirdly. I think just because they get put in the shade and there's a little fan blowing in the charger.
Next upgrade, solar mini split for the trailer, from EG4. 👍
Hehe, then I wouldn’t have enough energy to mow! However I would be much cooler than I am now 😎
How does your tesla hold up pulling the trailer? Is the trailer capable of charging the tesla as well? I run a small lawn and irrigation business using greenworks equipment and we havent been able to find an electric vehicle capable of pulling all the weight efficiently... looking to kit our trailer similar to yours soon! Thanks for the videos.
Hey thanks for stopping by and always fun to hear from others doing something similar!
Technically the trailer can charge the Tesla, but it’s such a small amount and a slow charge that it’s not really worth it and also not necessary for my situation since I just charge at home and have plenty of range for the whole day.
The Model Y handles great, but my routes are maximum 40 miles round trip and I typically stay off the highway but have a few miles of ~60mph roads. Anyway, if you’re not trying to do 100miles or more a day with the trailer (although you could with supercharging) it’s a great option, just realize the tow capacity is 3500lbs with 350lb tongue weight so you need to be cautious of trailer choice and equipment loading. All my EGO stuff is fairly lightweight so in total I’m probably hauling ~2500lbs or a little less.
A friend of mine runs his palm tree fertilizing business with a Model Y and a lightweight enclosed aluminum trailer and does about 40,000 miles a year. I think fully loaded he’s hauling ~1600lbs total. He stops at supercharges on some of his routes when driving around the state. Anyway, he loves it and says it’s saving him loads of money in fuel compared to his old truck.
I see this is the first video. I found it quite well done and enjoyed seeing how you deal with being all electric and using solar. EG4 has some great products and a couple of new batteries, though they are not cheap.
BTW - I like your trailer with the foldup ramp kept inside. Looks like you have is setup quite nice.
Even though you are all EGO and the batteries are interchangeable, it looks to be a 56 volts system. Some of the other electric Z-turn mowers use a power system based on lead-acid batteries with a more common voltage system. They can be converted to use LiFePo, giving them "all day" mowing capability and can be charged from your EG4 system.
Hey thanks very much for the kind words, it’s a challenge to make things fun and showcase the equipment. Next video will be a little more in detail and a bit of an educational overview of the system as I realize not everyone will have a solid grounding in batteries/inverters/solar etc. hopefully people will get something out of it and help them make a decision on if this setup is for them.
Yeah the trailer was a bit of a challenge with the double doors instead of the ramp door most people use. But it’s working fine for now.
A converted to LiFePO4 mower would be awesome as your cycle life would much greater, and I’ve thought about doing that one day. For my use case, I want liFePO4 equipment that’s relatively lightweight and charges quickly and I would keep the heavy storage batteries on the trailer. But I think most manufacturers are trying to cram as much battery into their equipment so that people can run longer on one charge.
I like the flexibility of my system, right now I’m all EGO, but I don’t have to be, I can plug in anything and charge it up.
your ramps are probably stronger then a ramp door. also if you ever want to load something with a forklift then ramp doors are a pain in the behind
You must have gone to film school. Very well done. As a non-lawn care guy I found the entire thing very entertaining. However... Master Lock to secure all you need to make a living??? Please upgrade that for your own benefit. Safety never takes a day off. Neither does crime :)
Aww too kind!
Interesting set up. How are the blades holding up on the mower? I've seen some other comments on other videos that they are not the best quality, and get dinged up pretty quickly and often. Resulting in a lesser quality cut.
They seem to be doing fine, definitely depends on the type of terrain you’re running over. I’ve got some vacant properties that chew them up a little more than the small well-kept lots. The cut quality mostly suffers when the grass gets really thick, regardless of sharpness. It’s a great product for the homeowner or individual trying to start their own small lawn care business, but has some ways to go to be a proper commercial rig in my opinion. Still a solid little unit.
Absolutely awesome setup! Some more efficient panels would make this worlds better. But as is, it seems to be working within your demands.
Enjoyed the video, I have picked up an electric weed wackier an a blower,
But my friend I suggest locking your wallet in the vehicle or buying pants with button down pocket flaps
U do not want to lose that wallet, it’s a real pain to get all the documents replaced
Guess how I know that fact,
Haha yes, the wallet flying out was a product of filming the video. I kept pulling my phone out of my holster thing and the wallet would come out of it. I’ve since corrected that. Glad you liked the video!
Dude your setup is dope and I'm a fan. Subbed!
You need to find a fix for your wallet, just leave it on the car dude. Amazing content, I got inspired to do the same on my mobile detailing business. Liked and suscribed
Thanks! It’s since been fixed haha. That was the first time trying to film and I was using my phone, so each time I pulled the phone out of my holster thing throughout the day, I risked my wallet falling out. I thought about cutting that issue out of the video, but thought it was a pretty fun real-world drama I experienced haha.
Couldn’t you add more solar panels on the side of of your trailer maybe even retractable like an awning , add more batteries for storage and do level 2 charging on your Tesla ?
Technically all doable, but being built for the purpose of mowing lawns, you're constantly moving from property to property, so if you had something that deploys, there's a chance you might forget, or it might block traffic etc. But, would be a great setup for a camping rig!
Heck yeah. I do landscaping in Gainesville and we use all electric and have been wanting/needing to figure out a set up like this.
I think you might be interested in what I have coming soon™ :)
only 543 subs...My bet with in the next month you will have at least 2k subs.. Tops notch videos. cant wait to see more content.
We all have to start somewhere! Thanks for watching and following along. Hopefully if I continue making top notch videos I'll continue getting top notch followers like yourself ;)
tesla cybertruck will be game changer.
A f150 lightening would enable more storage & backup capacity for the trailer
Very true! However it didn't exist when I started, and I already had the car, so I had to make do with what I had in order to try this experiment.
I thi k this is an amazing setup for southern states. But not practical in my area with the hills and growth of grass. I had to double cut most properties this year with the amount of rain we had.
Thanks! It does fit “The Sunshine Stare” quite well. However, the summer down here was tough, we had record heat, rain nearly every day, and things just wouldn’t stop growing. That meant I had to double cut some properties/areas too. Luckily I had enough power storage, but I could always add more if I needed it. An option up north might be to just have lots of battery storage and not solar. Again it might not make sense to do it right now with electric equipment being early days, but something to think about for the future maybe.
With the mower and eg4 battery near the rear have you looked at your tongue weight? I'd be concerned it could be lighter and effect trailering.
Good eye, I will cover that in an upcoming video as weight was a major concern when setting up the trailer. My tow vehicle (Tesla Model Y) has a tongue rating of 350lbs, and tow capacity of 3500lbs, so it's a careful balance keeping a healthy amount on the tongue without overloading it or having too much in the rear and creating an unsafe towing condition. My solar added a fair amount up front, plus the push mower, ego batteries, spare tire, etc. So the storage battery was placed in the rear to offset that a little. Anyway, I've got you covered, but thanks keeping an eye out and making sure I'm safe! Let me know if you spot anything else!
How is the model y working out for you? I also have an all electric lawn care business but use an f150 but looking at a model y for a daily/ back up tow rig for my 6x10 enclosed.
Really well so far. I also use mine for personal driving and it cleans up pretty nicely for that. If your trailer is single axle then you should be good, it’s tow capacity is 3500lb so you could tow a tandem axle trailer, but a lot more weight could go in the trailer than the car *should* be towing. The tongue weight is 350lb so you do need to be careful with how you load the trailer. I installed the trailer hitch myself and figured out how to wire directly into the cars existing harness but I would probably recommend just paying for the tow package from Tesla, it’s a lot easier but more expensive than doing it yourself. Lastly expect it to cut your range in half. I stay off the highway but still have to drive 60mph into town and my route isn’t the best so round-trip I’m doing 30-40miles which will use ~30% of the battery. It’s the aerodynamics, not the weight that gets you.
Oh also, there’s a crazy amount of storage in the car and I’ve used it to haul 10ft long metal rails with the rear hatch fully closed, and thrown all my landscaping tools in the back when I’m towing my other trailer.
Bottom line is it’s a great vehicle for towing if you have realistic expectations and aren’t trying to drive across country lol. Lastly I charge at home so that keeps the costs down vs supercharger.
You don’t pick up any debris? Seems like it would be a nightmare to dethatch later.
Here in my area in Florida it's the norm to leave it on the ground and it degrades so quickly with our heat/humidity that it's never an issue. I do see some homeowners that bag their clippings but it's not typical and not really necessary.
Bro , 300 subscribers . Your crazzzyyyyyyy
This channel easily 1million
Goodluck wish you the best
Haha thank you. We all have to start somewhere!
Nice work..👍🏻
I built my solar trailer in 2020 and it's still working perfectly..😊
How do you like that backpack blower ?
Apart from the weight (using 2x 6ah batteries) I like it quite a bit. I had been using the 765cfm handheld blower from EGO for over a year and was getting tired of holding it for 15+ minutes on my corner lot properties with sandy sidewalks and having it cut out in the Florida heat after 10 minutes of constant operation (not even on "turbo"). So this is an improvement for sure, but comes at a pretty steep cost at ~$800.
Bro got the solar mowing setup of the century but loses wallet every 5 minutes 😅😅😅
No one is perfect 🤷♂️
It's interesting to discover a good channel with good content at the very beginning. I foresee a lot of success.
Very cool setup, but it must have cost a fortune! Are you able to do this profitably?
I invested my own money into the equipment to get started, already had bought the car from my previous job, the trailer is 17 years old and long term loaned by a family member to me and I did a whole bunch of work to it to make it look nice (painted interior and exterior myself), as well as replaced the axle and added electric brakes etc. I survived off savings for a long time and any money I made from the business I put straight back into it, it was rough in the beginning but I’m not in debt, and now the business is covering my living expenses and car payment/insurance etc. and allowing me to invest back into it again. I’m very good at living on pretty much nothing so that has helped keep me above water. I will say even with all the difficulties of starting a fully electric lawn care business from scratch, it’s really rewarding. And I love the fact that I don’t have to buy any gas or deal with that stuff anymore. Just my feeling though.
if only your Tesla had output power like an F150 or Rivian has. 😞
Yeah, they didn’t exist when I started my business, and I already had the car. Oh well, something to work towards in the future!
What was your out of pocket cost on the solar charging set up? Are there any govt incentives?
I checked for incentives and asked my CPA to check as well but neither of us found anything here in Florida (or Federal) at the time that I was setting this up. Doesn't mean there wasn't any or won't be any, but I paid full price for everything. Of course because it's a business asset you can claim some of it on your taxes, but unfortunately I couldn't get the Federal tax credit of 30% for solar and battery systems because it's not going on my house. However, I do believe the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentive of $7500 includes electric mowers now, but they must have more than 7kwh of battery onboard so this wouldn't apply to my equipment anyway. I know at least California has their own separate incentives for electric lawn care equipment, and I'm sure other States do or will follow suite. So depending on where you are you might have something available at the state level or even federal if you're getting a large mower with a big battery pack.
As for out of pocket costs, I haven't totaled up absolutely every little piece of hardware/electrical wiring I spent money on (I will later when I do the video showing the installation process) but just a basic cost on solar, battery, and inverter it was about $3500. I'll cover that in the next video where I show an overview of the system and a demonstration of it's capabilities etc. Hope this helps and thanks for checking out the video!
Then Starlink for internet and a mini split you have a mobile office LOL
Somebody is thinking outside the box! Love it haha.
You should keep a squidgy and rod mop on telescoping boom poles with right angle attachments on the truck to be able to quickly remove water and dust from your panels without a ladder. Just a small amount of condensation/droplets and debris/dust can greatly cut down on a panel’s efficiency. You may have enough battery to spare. Or maybe it’s just general maintenance you do at the beginning or end of each day. Just a recommendation. Love what you’re doing either way. Very innovative! Well done sir.
moron
Now just needs Frig for drinks and lunch and microwave lol :)
It may have crossed my mind once or twice 😂
Hello, this is Milton in the Bolt that you chatted with today while you were finishing work. FPL uses solar to charge my entire house and the Bolt. I also have an electric bike. Great idea to set up this on youtube. Keek up the good work and let me know if you need help in any way. Im retired so I have free time.
Hi Milton! Thanks for stopping to talk! Was nice meeting you and glad you like the idea! More videos coming soon! And thanks for the offer, I’ll let you know if I need anything.
hey love the video, may want to set some cones out. one in front of your tesla and one behind the trailer.
Good call, I’ve been thinking about it but you know how those things go, you just get used to operating without it. Maybe I should listen to my own advice of safety never takes a day off haha. Thanks for looking out for me!
Sooo I do car detailing is their a way to use solar for my equipment and not a generator 🤔🧐
I’m sure there is! What kind of equipment do you have to power all day? Are you mobile, do you tow a trailer or drive a van?
We have multi million dollar home neighborhoods where they would definitely all pay more for someone to come by with electric machines just for the quiet. Ive been surprised nobody has done this setup here!
Where you are from is green friendly, they don’t even believe in watering their yard.
Do you do a lot of fall/leaf clean ups?
Never apologize as well as feel bad about your set up. We all have to start somewhere.
How safe is the Ego equipment to use in the rain 🌧? Also does your system automatically shut the charger off when it reaches 100 percent to avoid overload on the batteries 🔋? Thanks for your assistance.
I guess I didn't really explain it in the video, but I don't mow when it rains because when the grass is wet, it doesn't cut well, it sticks to EVERYTHING including the sidewalk and road so it's hard to blow it off, then you can also end up carving ruts in someone's yard because the ground gets soft. Not to mention here in Florida, it can rain HARD in a matter of minutes and you get lots of lightning too. So it's not because I'm worried about getting shocked from the ego stuff, everything seems to be well protected. I still don't like my equipment to be out in the rain because it can eventually rust. However, I have left my string trimmer out in the pouring rain with the battery on it and mowed in the rain a few times just trying to finish up the last of a yard or two, and also I wash down the mower occasionally and no issues thus far.
Not sure if you're asking about the solar/battery or the ego equipment, but either way: yes, the inverter/charger shuts the charging down automatically once the battery is topped up.
how much money did all of this cost seems like a large upfront cost for all of this
It’s not cheap, but I already had the Tesla for personal use and was bought while at my previous job, but I got the trailer used, did a bunch of work to it myself, and have been slowly adding equipment and tools as I go and as the business makes money. So it’s half investment, half bootstrap, if you will. But as it stands today, lawn care is my primary source of income, albeit much less than I used to make. But the growth potential is much higher. Anyway, I’m not trying to say people should drop what they’re doing/using and go get/do what I did, but for me this whole thing is an experiment to see what works and what doesn’t, and to share. That way we have a better product and experience in the future. I think for lots of people, a hybrid setup will make a lot of sense until costs come down for electric equipment. That being said, California is mandating electric for lots of things but also offering huge incentives. So maybe that sort of thing will happen more frequently elsewhere. Who knows.
love ur video.., question do you charge "no pun intended" more for all electric lawn care?
Tough question to answer. I didn’t come from gas lawn care so I didn’t know what I *should* be charging. I started out with a number in my head based on things I found online, then quickly realized my area doesn’t support that kind of price so had to adjust down significantly. That put a damper on things but I’ve been slowly building my reputation as quality rather than quantity so most of my clients are all word of mouth. For those, you can charge more because it’s just you, you are the one in control of quality and consistency that they desire and are willing to pay more for. Tough to do the same thing in a volume business.
Anyway, I think I’m at or just above the price of other lawn care services in my area, but not purely based on being *electric*. More so that they like me and/or the work I do and are willing to pay more for that. The electric and quiet are an added bonus. Hope that helps.
As a note, quite a few of my clients are work from home or night shift or retired, so maybe they do really value the electric, but so far no one has been knocking down my door willing to pay a bunch more because they don’t like gas stuff. Your mileage may vary, and given how crappy my town is, you might have much better results. Hope this helps.
so just curious does constantly doing a partial charge on all that deteriorate the battery’s longevity?
Probably, but not as much as a full discharge would. These battery chemistries don't like to be drained to below 10-20% if you can help it. You can argue they shouldn't be fully charged to 100% either (somewhere in the 30-80% cycle range is preferred, but practically speaking, I don't have a good way to keep them from charging up to 100% so I just let them. If I was a homeowner I would probably baby them for longevity, in my case I'm taking a risk they might fail early, but I'm treating everything like someone would while running a business. You don't have time to baby the batteries, you have to be out there on a property making money and taking on more jobs and running equipment hard. So I honestly don't do anything special to my batteries or equipment, I want to see it survive or fail. I can always get something different and learn from what did or didn't work and keep moving. It's expensive and risky, but I personally feel it's worth trying.
I had an idea for a business exactly like this a few years ago. Very cool to see someone do it! I'll be subscribing and looking for more!
Can the trailer charge the car as well or do your routes not drain the car battery that much?
So in my other video: th-cam.com/video/6gmQ4YBpQm8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=8WpcwtYbZ4fDcjm0 I show that I can actually charge the car, but I normally don’t because all that power is being used by my lawn care equipment. Also it would take an incredibly long time to charge.
This has to be the coolest set up that has to do with anything solar that I've ever seen!
What's the drop in range of the tesla when towing your loaded trailer?
It uses roughly double the energy compared to not towing, slightly more than double if you’re driving on the highway. It has plenty of power to tow it, but aerodynamics are the main killer. Later I’m going to be trying some improvements to minimize that and will of course do some videos. But right now it’s not a big concern as I’m not going more than 40 miles in a day and staying off the highway.
Looks like a cool setup man.
Just for perspective, a gallon of gasoline has almost 34,000 Watt-Hours, and it doesn't care about rain, shine, cold days, or hot days.
It is pretty crazy how much energy is available in gasoline, it’s a shame that internal combustion engines are at best around 18-20% efficient at converting that into usable work. Electric motors and batteries are much more efficient at using and storing energy (~97-95%, respectively), but unfortunately battery tech hasn’t progressed enough to be able to store large amounts of energy in a small (lightweight) form factor. However, I do find it kind of crazy that my little solar panel array on top of my trailer can run an entire solo operator lawn care business, just goes to show how efficient those electric motors are. Of course like you said when it’s cloudy I don’t make as much power, but I can mow in the rain, I just choose not to mow when it’s a torrential Florida downpour with lightning striking all around you lol.
ICE engines are becoming more efficient as materials and technology improves, some are well above 30% for consumers while there are industrial applications approaching 50%. With petroleum fuels the ceiling is much higher than any battery technology that exists now or on the horizon, there is simply nothing that approaches the chemical potential energy storage that gasoline and diesel enjoy. Not only in storage but also in transferring that energy, a standard gas pump moves roughly 300kWH in a matter of minutes. Not only are there no batteries that can accept a charge at that rate, there's not even a safe way of connecting such power outside of utility-level controls. Battery-power works for certain applications, your setup works for you but wouldn't scale for large crews working tens of yards every day.
Awesome setup 👌 totally subbed and can't wait for more content. 😀
Strap down that runaway wallet! Lol 😆
Quick question will you be adding more battery storage as a just in case solution? 🤔
No kidding, that wallet loves to misbehave.. Thanks for following! To answer your question, the next step I could take if I needed more, would be to plug the trailer in at home after a day of mowing, this would allow me to charge up the onboard battery and the equipment batteries if they were low and solar wasn’t enough. At some point if I was finding that even that wasn’t enough, I could definitely add more onboard battery capacity, but I’m somewhat limited on charging speed, so if things were really crazy, I guess I could have a set of batteries charging in the trailer all the time, and swap them out in the equipment. But I think this setup is ideal for a solo operator, maybe two person crew, we’re not quite ready for mainstream with large crews or high volume yards.
I like your setup was it hard? Did you have clients to start?
Do you like ego better then ryobi?
So cool subscribed for sure
Thanks Tony ! I'm working my hardest to get you all more content, definitely didn't expect such a warm response from everyone already!
But electric ain't the future huh? I love electric cars trucks vans leaf blowers lawn mowers it don't matter but it's battery powered that's badass. With internal combustion engines you have to wait for the power to build with electric motors you get it all at once. And quite violently if you wish.
Yeah I really miss having to do oil changes, mess with belts, fuel and air filters, mixing gas and oil, and pull starting a chainsaw 30 times before it fires up. Not to mention the *smell* was to die for, I’m getting choked up just thinking about it. All this electric stuff is too easy and it doesn’t make me feel like a man. It’s starting to crack my fragile EGO.
@@solarpunksteve all I can do is laugh love your work man. I'm attempting to go all electric but it's expensive.
This is fucking badass.
The batteries can get hot!!! Did you see that this summer?
Yeah, I got heat exhaustion multiple times, but my batteries kept working!
just shove the line thru, it will feel funky but eventually come out the other end. for the weed eater ..
Does it shut off automatically when fully charged ? Or do they overheat? Especially since the inside of a trailer will be hit anyway
Yeah both the inverter/battery and the mower/tool chargers will shut down automatically when full. And they all have thermal monitoring systems and will shutdown/stop charging if too hot, but so far even in our ridiculously hot summer here recently in Florida, everything has continued to work through the heat. Meanwhile I've had to stop due to heat exhaustion lol. I need a battery powered personal air conditioning jacket or something.
thats honestly really cool and probably the future of landscaping lol. And trust me I know how hot it was in florida this summer, my buddy lives down there and he said they would have to stop work outside at like 1pm cause its just so hot
@@solarpunksteve
Ugh! Those white flowered weeds.
Cleaning the road...admire that.
Good decent job bro!
I mow my father’s yard with an E-Go mower. I love renewable resources. I also drive a Tesla this hits every spot. Keep it up love watching these videos!!!
I love your setup, great use of solar. I recommend you get yourself a refrigerator for the trailer. Having cold fluids are a godsend when working in the heat.
A refrigerator adds the ability to carry foods for lunches as well.
While this is all really cool and there are some other nice benefits to electric mowers, the entire idea of keeping a lawn is contradictory to all of this.
I was wondering when I might get another solarpunk ;) One problem at a time my friend, hard to convince people to replace their lawns unless you fully understand the problem from all sides, including the lawn care professional's, which is why I wanted to start a lawn care business. Hoping that with some luck, I can bring people along the journey from both sides, homeowners and professionals and find *solutions*. Ignoring all else, lawn care in the US alone uses about 800 million gallons of gasoline every year, so solar powered lawn care isn't a bad starting point, in my humble opinion.
@@solarpunksteve word. The noise reduction alone as others have mentioned is worth it. Keep it up, my brother lives in that hood.
I have a full setup like this also. Self sustained.
That’s awesome! For your lawn care business or your house? I love seeing other peoples setups, you should post a video of it!
Just wanted to point out its best to run the battery down to red. That way the cells last longer. You get like 1000 charge cycles before degradation. Everytime you charge the same cell, it causes wear. If you already knew this, just disregard, but if not I hope its more helpful than an annoyance.
Are you thinking of Nickel Cadmium (“Ni-Cad”) batteries which require you to discharge fully so it doesn’t develop a “memory”? For these (and most other lithium ion batteries), they can be charged at any point and do not require that they be drained before recharging, which is also stated in EGO’s battery manuals. Now, EGO doesn’t specifically state the chemistry (NCA or NMC etc.) other than lithium ion but typically it’s not good practice to drain a lithium ion battery completely, nor is it good to charge it to 100% all the time, but since I don’t really have a way to control the max charge other than manually removing it from the charger when its ~80% and that’s simply not practical when mowing lawns all day I just opt to let them charge up to whatever level before I pull them back out again.
I agree with you they will suffer from degradation, and I’ll cover this in another video at some point, but I would actually prefer manufacturers to use lithium *iron* phosphate batteries (heavier per Watt hour but cycle life is much greater) and just make the batteries a little smaller/less capacity and I can just keep charging them all day and not have to worry about degradation.
Hope this made sense, and if I’m incorrect please let me know.
Thanks! I have been thinking of the charge cycles all wrong. I to have an all-Ego electric lawn service. I had been charging only when in the red, which is annoying to keep up with. I don't have solar, but I have 40 batteries.
40 batteries! Wow! Right now I’m working on my video of my solar/battery/inverter setup and I’ll cover the cost difference of that equipment vs buying more batteries.
How have you been liking using the ego mower?
@solarpunksteve can't wait want to try this as well hope cost breakdown
nice work man! super impressive and fun setup
Actually very interested in this new channel. Would love to see some content on how you got your clients, did you build the tesla/trailer setup before starting? Very nice stuff tho i can see this channel doing well!
Thanks so much for the kind words! I’m working hard to bring you some good informational content so people can decide if this will work for them or how to go about doing it, stay tuned!
To answer some of your questions quickly. I started small, just one client who was a friend of a friend, built up from there. Had to install the trailer hitch on my Tesla myself because I didn’t originally buy it for this purpose, also didn’t have solar and batteries until later once I was reaching the point of pushing any new clients to new days because I was running out of charge.
You need to cantact the Now You Know guys. I'm sure they'd love to feature you on one of their shows.
Would be cool, I’ve watched their stuff previously. Maybe you should make the introduction for us 😉. Always better when it comes from someone else. Also, I’ll see you September 30th! Looking forward to it. Just letting you know I will refer to you as foamy Dave, even in person 😂
@@solarpunksteve NYK contacted.
Awesome set up! I’ve been on the fence on getting battery powered lawn gear. Although I do not mow multiple lawns like you but I would like to get batt powered gear for my own lawn. You may have convinced me! I also subscribed to your channel!
Love this!!
I just found your channel. It’s on par with what I have been doing this year. All in with EGO but minus the solar power. I run charged up a series of LIPO4 batteries I charge at night. Going solar in 2024. I can use the help researching Solar!!! Thank you Sir! Steve from North Carolina 😊😊😊😊😊
Hey that's awesome! So do you bring the LifePO4 batteries with you? If so what are you using to convert that into something you can use to charge your ego equipment? A small inverter?
Us Steve's are everywhere haha.
@@solarpunksteveIt’s a DIY battery bank with 3000w inverter to AC power. I use a dc to dc charger to charge it up at night. The battery bank is a 300ah. I have 20 customers and it is my first season. I absolutely love mowing!!! I also work for the DOD and do this in the afternoon. Get ready to pull the trigger on an EGO Z6 and your solar power system is just the ticket I need. I mow till December in NC and would be a good project from Dec to end of Feb. Currie am run EGO LM2142 duel port battery with 800 lbs. of torque. I have extreme route density so (2) 5 ah batteries does about 4 yards for me… with 2 more 5 ah batteries on stand by. Would love to chat with you one of these days? Not to mention your 8 hours away from me!!!
Super cool you've got a mobile charging rig, not many do!
Yeah would be happy to chat sometime! I love hearing what other people are doing/working on. Just shoot me an email through my website sometime. It's in the about page on my channel, or just find it on the side of my trailer in the video. TH-cam doesn't like seeing links to things in the comments usually.
You’re a genius! perfect setup! I can see a bunch of these in California eventually. CA is banning the sale of petroleum powered gardening equipment after 2024. The issue for the transition is the cost of those tool batteries and this just solved the problem.
Not a crazy idea in Sunny Florida, and even less crazy in desert states out west. In the North East or Great Lakes states you won't be able to rely on solar as much, but since the Summer is the main growing season there it can still offset costs substantially over time. A better answer to your quiz: DANGER never takes a day off, therefore you should always EMPLOY safety!