Due to the continuous increase in the cost of fuel and the effect of emission of gases from the burnt fuel into the atmosphere, this necessitated the use of the abundant solar energy from the sun as a source of power to drive a lawn mower. A solar powered lawn mower was designed and developed, based on the general principle of mowing. The designed solar powered lawnmower comprises of direct current (D.C) motor, a rechargeable battery, solar panel, a stainless steel blade and control switch. Performance evaluation of the developed machine was carried out with different thickness of blade and different height of cut. The machine was found to have a maximum field efficiency of 78.06% with 3 mm and 5 mm blade thickness and 50 mm height of cut and minimum field efficiency was 71.93% with 4 mm blade thickness and 25 mm height of cut. Maximum effective field capacity of mower was 0.0306 ha/h with 3 and 5 mm blade thickness and 50 mm height of cut and minimum effective field capacity was 0.0282 ha/h with 4 mm blade thickness and 25 mm height of cut. Power consumption observed at no load condition was 36 watt for each blade. The maximum power consumption at load condition was 264 watt with 5 mm thickness of blade and 25 mm height of cut and minimum power consumption at load condition was observed with 3 mm thickness of blade and 50 mm height of cut.

Download this article as