Money Saving Wednesday…Clothes Dryer
Of course, one of the cheapest means of drying clothes uses no appliance what-so-ever. A clothes line and clothes pins is a one time less than $10.00 investment. Using the sun and breezes, clothes lines are making a come back in many backyards. Some homeowners’ associations and cities, however, have local CC&Rs that restrict the use of clothes lines so, check the covenants, codes and restrictions covering your property before putting up a clothes line. If they exist, get together with some neighbors and try changing them. I can’t believe communities would outlaw clothes lines but some have. Crazy…
A few other ways to cut the amount of energy and money you spend drying clothes:
-
Locate your dryer in a heated space. Putting it in a cold or damp basement or an unheated garage will make the dryer work harder and less efficiently.
-
Make sure your dryer is vented properly. If you vent the exhaust outside, use the straightest and shortest metal duct available. Flexible vinyl duct restrict airflow, can be crushed, and may not withstand high temperatures from the dryer, needing to be replaced frequently.
- Clean the vent hose annually.
-
Check the outside dryer exhaust vent at least annually. If it doesn’t close tightly, replace it with one that does so outside air can’t leak in. This also reduces heating and cooling costs.
-
Clean the lint filter in the dryer after every load to improve air circulation.
-
Dry only full loads, small loads are less economical; however, do not overload the dryer.
-
Separate wash and dry similar weight fabrics together. For example, dry bath towels and sweat shirts together and dry cottons together.
-
Dry two or more loads in a row, taking advantage of the dryer’s retained heat.
-
Choose a dryer setting which senses the moisture content in the fabrics and do not choose a dry cycle based on time.
- Use the cool-down cycle (perma-press cycle) to allow the clothes to finish drying with the residual heat in the dryer.
- Best Choice..use a clothesline! Let the heat of the sun dry your clothes, and don’t use the clothes dryer at all. If you don’t like the stiff feel to some line dried fabric, placing them in the dryer for just one minute after they are dry will remove the stiffness.
You should always be prepared to dry your clothing on a line in case of a power outage or other emergency so if you don’t already have rope and clothes pins stored, add them to your General Store now.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=31a927a4-ae23-4cb1-8a33-7f826989707d)
I never understood the attraction to clotheslines, but then I live in Aussie, our coldest weather just means we bring the clothes in front of the fire when we have to:)
Our HOA amended bylaws to allow umbrella style clotheslines behind a fence in the side yard only. Not workable for us as it’s where the AC unit is. So – we use drying racks in the house and clotheslines on the lanai – no rules are violated, no dryer is used and everybody’s happy.
Sunshine is also a great microbe killer!
Here in Australia most backyards have an outdoor clothes line & its just great – washing smells so lovely when dried outdoors ! I often use fold out clothes airers to put my washing on indoors in wet weather or when I will be out all day – put it in a warm spot where possible & it all dries well & makes it easy to deal with (I have 4 drying racks which is is enough for 1 set of sheets also). If the weather is really cold I can put the nearly dry items in drier to finish them off, saves a lot of electricity that way.