Laundry Tips to Shrink Your Bills
Snapshot | Washing | Drying | Take action!
Snapshot
Washing laundry uses a lot of hot water and electricity in many homes, especially those with a lot of occupants. The major culprit is the cost of heating water (about 90% of the cost of washing clothes), followed by drying and water. Tweak your laundering routine to reduce hot water. It can shrink down your annual utility bills as much as 10%!
Washing
• Wash fewer loads. Practices like washing towels daily and laundering clothes after one wearing are worth rethinking. If expanding your wardrobe of socks and underwear buys you time between washes, it's worth doing. You'll also save time. Consolidate: If your family washes 5 loads of laundry per week, cutting one load will save you $15 in the Bay area.
• Wash and rinse in cold water. Cold water gets clothes just as clean as hot water in most cases. Hot water dissolves greases and oils, but otherwise it's overkill. Cold water better preserves your clothes' colors and fibers, too, and won't shrink your clothes. Always use cold water for the rinse cycle. You can save around 4 percent on your power bill.
• Wash full loads. Fill the washer to the brim to get your money's worth from your water and heat investment. To wash just a few articles of clothing, consider giving them a swish in the sink with some liquid laundry soap or even shampoo.
Drying
A dryer is like a big blow dryer. A lot of power is used to blow heated air onto clothes. The key is to reduce the moisture in clothing before it gets to the dryer and look for opportunities to avoid the dryer. According to the California, it typically costs 30 to 40 cents to dry a load of laundry in an electric dryer and approximately 15 to 20 cents in a gas dryer. Over its expected lifetime of 18 years, the average clothes dryer will cost you approximately $1,530 to operate.
The dryer might fluff your towels but it damages clothes. The lint you remove from your dryer filter was once fibers in your clothes! Reducing or avoiding drying can lengthen the life of your clothing.
• Use the longest spin-dry cycle you can on your washing machine. This uses centrifugal force to dewater your clothes; your dryer won't have to work as long to evaporate moisture. Newer machines have longer spin cycles. Consider skipping the dryer for your barely damp clothes and fast-drying clothes such as PolarFleece and performance fabrics. Leave them on the drying rack or shower rack overnight.
• Clean your lint filter. Remove lint fibers from the filter to improve air circulation (otherwise, moisture stays in the machine) and reducing a fire risk.
• Use the moisture sensor on your newer dryer, not the timer. If you have one, use the moisture sensor. It switches off the dryer when clothes are dry.
• Dry full loads, but don't over-fill. Drying partial loads can use almost as much energy as full loads. Overloading can increase drying times.
• Don't over-dry your clothes. Over-drying wastes energy and damages your clothes.
• Dry two or more loads in a row. This takes advantage of the heat remaining in the dryer after the first load.
• Keep towels with towels. Dry more absorbent and heavy cloth, such as towels, together, so dry items aren't still tumbling in your dryer with items that are wet. Mixing blankets and light nylon items will mean the nylons bake while the blankets are still half wet.
• Use permanent press. Your dryer's perma-press cycle uses a long cold cycle to help get wrinkles out of clothes. This is often enough to finish drying them.
• Air dry. The laundry line makes a lot of sense and of course costs nearly nothing. Some homeowner associations forbid laundry lines; you can get around this by using indoor lines and drying racks (and lobbying to change the rules!). This can trim up to 5% off your power costs.
