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Old 01-22-11, 09:40 AM   #7
NeilBlanchard
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Location: Maynard, MA Eaarth
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I used my neighbor's Toro 1800 18" single stage electric snowblower for about 50 minutes, and used 0.59kWh. I was using it quite hard -- I cleared about 18" of snow from three storms from most of a driveway that can park about 6 cars lined up; and a 40' path to my compost bin through even more snow, and also cleaned up the other driveway (I live on a corner lot)! In 50 minutes...

The hourly energy use is ~0.708kWh = 0.34 cup of gasoline per hour. At my local (relatively expensive) electrical rate of about 17 cents / kWh, that's about 12 cents worth of electricity per hour.

This is pretty impressive performance, I think. If I was going to buy an electric snowblower, I would get this one, which is slightly larger and a bit more powerful than the Toro model, and it is significantly less expensive:


(click on image for link)
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