9 batteries by the numbers I presented runs to 5.5 hours. 15 batteries at 37 minutes a piece is 9.25 hours.
I can see that being a possibility for someplace like a college campus where one crew is literally just roving around an limited area for the day to maybe get in 5.5 hours of straight actual use, maybe, if the team is super well pipelined in what they are doing. But it seems like a fanciful/rare/contrived example. How many days of this a year does the crew work? For most lawn-care folks, I tend to think they have a lot of different sites to cover, and there's some transportation, and a variety of tasks other than leafblowing. I have a hard time imagining someone actually clocking 6 hours of actual full-throttle use of a leafblower on any day, much less day after day.
Even in exotic uses (unseen in the city in question/my own city, DC), I think adaption is less of a challenge than one might think.
I’m not a yard company but I’ve talked to the team that does my yard and they said (two of them) that they do 12-16 houses a day and each house takes about 30 minutes. Usually one is blowing the whole time while one mows and weedwhacks and then the second puts on a backpack. They have a long day from like 7am to 6pm.
So my example certainly isn’t contrived. But it’s just one example and the only one I know.
If these teams start at 7am, they should be executed/shot without legal reprecussions if they start at 7am in most areas with gas bullshit.
You've specified an 11 hour work window. If, between two people, they spend 50% of that day working with full-throttle leaf blowing, I'm very impressed with their efficiency. Getting around & blowing being that dominant a factor in the day is impressive. That's still 9 batteries tops & they should accept that easily given the very very very very low total cost of ownership, given that they dont need to figure out how to lug a bulk of batteries around & can just carry 1 at a time (the backpack hardware allows for two).
I certainly wish they wouldn’t be so loud early in the morning, but don’t agree on execution :)
I think the issue is that buying and managing 9 batteries is much harder than a tank of gas. Not that it’s impossible, but that’s not a realistic path for professionals. We need better batteries before this is a feasible replacement.
This is also just a two person company and they own their own business.
They need to deal & adapt. Having batteries in the truck is not hard. They have a social obligation to a huge number of people to not be disruptive in doing their jobs & it's not at all hard for them to meet that. Gas is not that much easier.
I can see that being a possibility for someplace like a college campus where one crew is literally just roving around an limited area for the day to maybe get in 5.5 hours of straight actual use, maybe, if the team is super well pipelined in what they are doing. But it seems like a fanciful/rare/contrived example. How many days of this a year does the crew work? For most lawn-care folks, I tend to think they have a lot of different sites to cover, and there's some transportation, and a variety of tasks other than leafblowing. I have a hard time imagining someone actually clocking 6 hours of actual full-throttle use of a leafblower on any day, much less day after day.
Even in exotic uses (unseen in the city in question/my own city, DC), I think adaption is less of a challenge than one might think.