[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/EW-05-17-12-Dryers.mp3|titles=EW 05-17-12 Dryers]
Sometimes, doing the right thing for the environment costs more money. But that’s not the case in the household laundry room.
First, a quick lesson on measuring energy use. If you have an appliance rated at 1,000 watts, then each hour it runs equals one kilowatt-hour. Over at the coal-fired power plant, the fuel burned to run the appliance for that hour would generate little over a half-pound of carbon dioxide, as well as emissions of particulate matter and other pollutants. If your energy comes from a nuclear power plant, a separate set of environmental issues is at stake.
Most clothes dryers are rated between 1,800 and 5,000 watts. So on average, each hour-long dryer load is responsible for emitting around nine pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere. The typical American household does 400 laundry loads a year, generating a ton and a half of carbon emissions.
How much those dryer loads cost you depends on what your power company charges you per kilowatt-hour. If you’re in the market for a new dryer, you can reduce your emissions and the amount you pay for drying clothes by choosing a dryer with a thermostat. Also, gas dryers are less polluting than electric. But even newer dryers are energy hogs. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, only refrigerators and lighting use more household energy.
That’s why in my household, we have installed a clothesline, and at least half of our laundry is dried on it. If other families did this and committed to line-drying just one-third of their laundry, that would be a half-ton of carbon saved per household per year, and the energy cost savings would be outstanding.
Photo, taken on August 13, 2005 using a Nikon E2500, courtesy of Derik DeLong via Flickr.
Web Links
U.S. Energy Information Administration Data on End-Use Consumption of Electricity
http://www.eia.gov/emeu/recs/recs2001/enduse2001/enduse2001.html
Project Laundry List
The central organizing force in the “right to dry” movement
www.laundrylist.org