My lawn is a solar collector. Energy is stored in the plant material, and it can be harvested after the lawn is mowed by firing the clippings in a combustor to generate heat or power. A more efficient use of this energy, however, is to recycle the clippings back into the lawn or into a garden as compost to offset petroleum-based fertilizer.
Given this interpretation of my lawn, it seemed wrong to buy a conventional gas-guzzling lawnmower to keep it trimmed. Why use a non-renewable energy source to harvest a renewable energy source? I might as well be in the corn ethanol business (see “Let the Sun Set on Corn-Based Ethanol”). To investigate other options, I found an excellent Web site, http://www.cleanairgardening.com/ , highlighting many alternatives to gas mowers. After a little research, I settled upon the Black & Decker CMM1200 Cordless Electric Lawnmower, which I purchased last week.
Perhaps the most environmentally benign option would have been a manual reel mower. However, I wanted to be able to mulch the clippings or collect them for composting as I desired. Plus, my reading suggested that manual reel mowers don’t handle weeds well, and my lawn has a pretty serious weed problem.
When I was a kid, one of my household chores was mowing the lawn with our gas mower. I remember jerking on the starter cord a dozen times to get the engine to turn over, inhaling exhaust fumes, being deafened by the engine roar, and having my hands vibrated so severely that I couldn’t feel my fingers. I also remember running out of gas and having to fill up the mower from the fuel can we kept in the garage. I hated mowing the lawn.
The cordless mower is a totally different experience. It is quiet and smooth. The engine easily turns on and off with a spring-actuated lever – no starter chord. At 76 pounds, the CMM1200 is a bit heavier than push gas mowers in its class (which usually run under 70 pounds) due to its 24-volt battery. However, it cuts grass just as well as its fossil-fuel-fired cousins, and frankly I need the exercise.
Of course, so long as the mower is recharging from a wall outlet, it is not truly using renewable energy. However, what sets cordless electric mowers apart from their plug-in counterparts is that the recharging station can be modified to use any electricity source, including solar power. Thus, as a long-term project, I plan to build a solar-powered charging station to make my cordless electric mower truly renewable. However, I will probably wait until the manufacturer’s warranty expires before attempting such a retrofit.
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Thanks to embedded electronics, medical devices are getting smaller and smarter than ever. Pacemakers and implantable defibrillators are now able to call physicians. MRIs, CT scanners, and ultrasound machines are gaining mobility. And the venerable Band-Aid may soon be able to detect illnesses ranging from fevers to heart arrhythmias. On February 21, join Design News senior editor Charles Murray for a wide-ranging discussion, "Embedded Angles for Medical Products," which will explore the latest developments in medical electronics. The discussion will examine advances in medical device technology and offer an inside look at the embedded electronics behind it.
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