An energy-efficient home includes products that you use outside, as well as inside, your home.

Electric (and Cordless!) Lawn Mowers

• Electric lawn mowers offer a cleaner and quieter way to mow your lawn. No more gasoline storage containers or engine oil problems to worry about. In addition, it costs less to operate the electric mowers than gasoline powered mowers (about $0.78 per hour for gasoline mowers, assuming $3.75 per gallon of gas, versus $0.05 to $0.14 for electric mowers).
• Many state environmental agencies, along with utilities, have sponsored gasoline powered lawn mower "trade ins" for coupons to purchase electric lawn mowers, since the environmental benefits are so significant.
• Some sample Web sites for information and products are shown below:
  • Black & Decker Lawn Mowers    
  • MGE Article on electric lawnmowers
  • NexTag information on electric lawn mowers  

Electric Bicycles

• Electric bicycles look like regular bicycles, except that they have a re-chargeable battery attached. This allows people in hilly areas to use their bicycles more and leave their cars at home. In many developing countries, urban pollution from vehicles using uncontrolled gasoline engines is a serious problem, which can be alleviated by commuters switching to electric (or regular) bicycles.
• Some sample Web sites for products are shown below:
  • Electric bikes
  • Currie Tech Hybrid Electric Bikes

Electric Vehicles

• Electric vehicles are the only cars and trucks that can be classified as zero-emission vehicles, from the tailpipe to certain power plants (such as hydro-electric, wind, solar, and geothermal). According to studies performed by the Department of Energy's Argonne National Library, electric vehicles reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 31 percent in the Northeast Region (based on current, not future, power plants) and by 46 percent in the West Coast Region, when compared to reformulated gasoline. If the customer chooses a renewable source of energy or nuclear power, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by nearly 100 percent.
• There are now efforts underway to advance the use of plug-in hybrid vehicles, which can increase the efficiency of hybrid vehicles to over 100 miles per gallon!
• Some sample Web sites for products are shown below:
  • Electric Drive Transportation Association 
  • EV World information  
  • Go Electric Drive