Drying your clothes on a clothesline can save energy!
It's been almost a full year since I stopped using our dryer! I am considering getting rid of the dryer completely (I still have it as a back-up right now) and adding a new set of shelves in it's place. Today's question is how much energy do you save using a clothesline?
The short answer is 3.3 kWh per load for an electric dryer or 0.22 therms and 0.21 kWh for a gas dryer. That is an average and assumes that your dryer runs 45 minutes each load.
The money you save will depend on your rates and how often you use the dryer. I wash an average of 7 loads a week and I have an electric dryer so not running my dryer saved me
- 3.3 kWh * 30 loads/month = 99 kWh's each month
My electric rate is 0.1216/kWh so I saved:
- 99 kWh/month * 0.1216 = $12.04/month
If you are considering solar power then you can look at it as an annual savings. I save 99 kWh/month * 12 months, or 1188 kWh's each year. Each solar panel produces 450 kWh's each year and it cost us $1018 for each panel. We were able to get 2.6 fewer solar panels by not using the dryer so we saved $2032 on our solar installation.
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- 5 Ways to Cut your Electric Bill in Half
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- The Nest Programmable Learning Thermostat
I think you have the right attitude when it comes to solar power! You need to not just use more efficient energy sources such as solar power but you need to couple that with more energy efficient habits. That is how you get huge savings!