POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Notes

This mower was donated to the Museum by Victa at the launch of the Eco Torque engine at the Powerhouse Museum on Wednesday 24th January 2007. It was used at the launch and operated briefly for recording by the media. The Eco Torque engine will initially be available on the Mustang mower from February 2007 and introduced progressively on all Victa two-stroke models by Spring 2007. Until recently Australian emission control strategies have been focused on the major polluters of industry and motor vehicle engines. Consequently, emission reduction technologies for lawnmowers and other gardening implements have not been a design consideration. As a result the emissions from an unregulated small engine can contribute more emissions per hour of use than a much larger car engine which has emissions control technology. Domestic lawn mowing accounts for 10% of the total anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan region on a summer time weekend. VOCs contribute to ozone and smog formation in summer. Because of the combustion of oil, lawnmowers also emit high levels of particles. The National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) indicates that lawnmowers produce air toxics and are responsible for over 9% of benzene emissions in the Greater Sydney Airshed. In some areas of the US, the contribution of lawn mowers to total hydrocarbon emissions was found to be as high as 13%. The US has led the world in regulating emissions from small engines, beginning with the introduction of Phase 1 regulations in 1997. After a failed negotiation process the US EPA introduced Phase 2 standards in 1999 which are due to be implemented by August 2007 and will see the two-stroke engine effectively banned. The standard for small lawnmower engines is 16.1g of combined emissions of hydrocarbons (HC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) per kW per hour of operation. Following a three year political dispute, reluctance from US engine manufacturers and a technical investigation by the US EPA the state of California introduced a third phase of legislation in 2006 requiring the use of catalytic converters to further reduce emissions from January 2007. The US EPA is considering implementing the Phase 3 standards nationally. Europe has introduced standards based on the US EPA. Since 2004 the NSW Government has been investigating measures to encourage the adoption of less polluting small engines by influencing manufacturers and importers to supply cleaner products and informing and influencing consumers to purchase cleaner small engines. By 2006 the emissions from small engines had become a national issue and the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage is due to release a scoping report following consultation with the states and industry in early 2007. The introduction of Australian standards are generally supported by industry and if introduced would most likely reflect the US EPA standards. In June 2008 parent company GUD sold Victa to US firm Briggs and Stratton, which had been a supplier of engines to Victa for many years. Reasons cited included uncertainties in weather conditions and their impact on the market, and competition from international manufacturers. Priest M, Williams D and Bridgman H (2000), Emissions from in-use lawn-mowers in Australia, Atmospheric Environment, Vol 34, p 657-664. NPI (2004), NPI Database - Benzene Summary [online], Australian Government Department of Environment and Heritage, available from http://www.npi.gov.au, [23 August 2004]. Department of the Environment and Water Resources (2007), Comparative Assessment of the Environmental Performance of Small Engines - Outdoor Garden Equipment, Prepared for Department of the Environment and Water Resources, Environment Link and Vehicle Design and Research P/L, February 2007, available from http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosphere/airquality/publications/pubs/outdoor-garden-equipment.pdf [November 2007]. Hutchison A (2008) 'Cultural barriers to sustainable design: a case study of the Victa lawnmower', in Glynne et al (Eds), Networks of Design: Proceedings of the 2008 Annual International Conference of the Design History Society (UK), Universal-Publishers, 2010, p239-245.