As part of my plan to reduce energy consumption this year, I purchased a clothesline to dry my clothes. Now, personally, I hate the look of a clothesline. I like to keep a neat garden and prefer flower trellises to the huge steel pools that my parent's still have in their backyard. But let's face it, I now have 4 chickens (yes, one died...but that's another story) being hauled around my yard in a chicken tractor so I guess I can compromise some of my views of aesthetics for the sake of the environment and my pocketbook. I purchased an umbrella-style clothesline that sets into a sleeve in the ground. It folds up when not in use and I can pull it out of the sleeve and put it in the shed when company comes.
U.S. Clothes Dryer Usage and Energy Consumption
Did you know that other countries don't rely on the automatic clothes dryer like most of us in the U.S.? In Australia (of course they have a ton of sun there) a 2002 survey by the Australian Ministerial Council on Energy said that only 20% of clothes dryers in Australia were reported as being used at least once a week. In the U.S., 90% of households have a clothes dryer and use it an average of 400 times a year. According to a 2001 report by the Department of Energy, electric dryers account for 5.8 percent of the total electricity usage in U.S. homes – that's more than I thought when you consider that 8.8 percent goes to indoor and outdoor lighting. Cost to you: $1,500 over the lifetime of the dryer or I've also seen calculations of $252/year.
Effects on the Environment on Clothes Dryers
Environmentally speaking, the energy consumed by a clothes dryer can be anywhere from 1800 to 5000 watts per hour, or 1.8 to 5KwHr. If we assume that 1.5 pounds of carbon emissions per kilowatt hour are generated in the production of electricity by a coal fired power station over a year's time, then a clothes dryer contributes significantly to CO2 emissions.
Benefits of Using the Sun
Believe it or not, hanging your clothes outside has other benefits besides reducing your energy consumption.
- It gets you outside and keeps you moving...get your daily Vitamin D and lose a few pounds
- The sun not only drys your clothes, it also destroys any bacteria that remain after the washing
- The sun gently bleaches your clothes without the use of chemicals
- The outlay for a clothesline is much less than for a clothes dryer. My little umbrella-style clothesline was $45.
- It's easier on your clothes. Clothes dryers create lint and accelerate the deterioration of your clothes. So not only do you save money on electricity, you save money on new clothes!
- And last, but certainly not least, your clothes smell soooo good. No bottle can reproduce that freshness, no matter how hard they try.
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