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> dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use That's a huge amount! I didn't realize it was so much!
by Wowfunhappy 4y ago
> dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use
That's a huge amount! I didn't realize it was so much!
- blakesterz 4y agoI thought for SURE that was going to be one of those made up stats from stupid magazine... nope... seems like that's actually true!? That's WAY higher than I would've ever guessed.
- namdnay 4y agoI guess they're mostly using old dryers without a heat pump
- gambiting 4y agoYou want a crazy stat? US uses more energy just for its AC usage, than the entire continent of Africa uses for literally everything combined together.
- wyldfire 4y agoIt's probably more meaningful to compare energy usage per-capita. IMO it's hard to understand what it means when describing energy uses by land masses. 2020 US population 330 million 2020 Africa population 1.3 billion
- refurb 4y agoIt's 6% of residential use. Residential use is 39% of all electrical generation. So driers are 2.3%. That number doesn't surprise me in the least. Residential electrical consumption is trivial if you don't include heating. So having an appliance use 5% of all home electricity seems pretty low?
- nonethewiser 4y agoI'm actually struggling to figure out the remaining 94%. I guess AC is like #1, fridge, tv/computer.... lights ... ?
- ghaff 4y agoI would guess AC (on average across the US) is a big one. Electric heat where it exists and is needed, refrigerators/freezers, over/stove, washer and dishwasher often heat water some. With LED lights/monitors and a general shift to more mobile electronics, I imagine that sort of thing is pretty far down the list.
- adgjlsfhk1 4y agoOven, and stove are the major ones. Not everyone has electric oven/stove, but those consume way more electricity than a drier (because they are on more often). Microwaves, space heaters, and hair driers are also major power users.
- deepserket 4y agospace cooling: 15.5% space heating: 15.2% water heating: 11.6% refrigeration: 7.1% lightning: 3.9% television: 3.7% computer: 2.4% other: 40.7% source: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/use-of-electricity.php https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/use-of-elect...
- refurb 4y agoI know it's an average, but I'm somewhat surprised that refrigeration is half of heating/cooling. I suppose gas heat offsets much of the heating requirement in some areas and some parts of the US have minimal cooling needs.
- mminer237 4y agoIf you include gas heating, heating alone becomes twelve times the energy use of refrigeration: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/homes.php https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/homes.php
- BillinghamJ 4y agoThere are commercial dryers to consider too
- refurb 4y agoThe figure is residential use. But sure, some commercial use would be dryers, but I assume compared to say aluminum ore electrolysis, it's pretty low.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoI do not think I have ever seen an electric commercial dryer (hotels/laundromat/etc). The electric costs would be insane in comparison to gas.
- bombcar 4y agoHere's one: https://unimac.com/product/tumble-dryers/industrial-tumble-dryers/120lb-capacity/ https://unimac.com/product/tumble-dryers/industrial-tumble-d... Bigger than that goes to gas or steam only. Note that if you're using that, you'd use an extractor, also (big centrifuge that spins the clothes so fast you can enrich uranium with it). https://unimac.com/product/washer-extractors/uw-series-high-performance-hardmount-washer-extractor/200lb-capacity/ https://unimac.com/product/washer-extractors/uw-series-high-...
- anecdotal1 4y ago
- gpderetta 4y agoObviously excess heat for mining should be used to dry clothing!
- gus_massa 4y agoThere were some project to make electric heaters that used and ASIC instead of a resistor, but none of them catch on. And ASIC is too more expensive than a resistor, and if you use the ASIC intermittently it get's old before you get your money back.
- micromacrofoot 4y agoeveryone needs dry clothes no one needs bitcoin
- gpderetta 4y agoTsk. If you mine bitcoins you can throw away your used clothes every day and always buy new ones with the profits. No need to wash them.
- the_third_wave 4y agoUse a mining rig as the heating element in a dryer and you'll get the benefits of both. This may be tongue in cheek but I do actually use the waste heat from our server and storage array to: - dry produce - fruits, mushrooms etc. - partially heat the second floor. The house is well-insulated so this relatively small amount of heat - the whole rig pulls around 300W - is often enough to keep the temperature above 15°C which is enough for the use we make of it.
- sure_about_that 4y ago
- sbradford26 4y ago
- gus_massa 4y agoAt home we stopped using the dryer and the electricity bill got reduced like a 30%. It's impossible to dry all the cloth in rainy winter weeks (imagine 10°C(50°F) and 90% of humidity), so now we are hanging towels, bed sheets and similar stuff and using dryer for small stuff, probably 50% and 50%.
- henvic 4y agoGet a heat pump dryer and you'll have the convenience and it'll probably cost only 30% of what it used to cost you.
- HarryHirsch 4y agoHang your clothes outside, and you don't have to plunk down for any dryer, heatpump or conventional.
- henvic 4y agoNope. I waste barely no space with my heat pump dryer. I can have my clothes dried outside quickly. I still can use my balcony for recreation rather than as an extension to the service area. I probably spend €15 a month drying everything I use, no big deal.
- bombcar 4y agoGet a spin-cycle front loader that bolts to the floor or a water extractor and hardly need to even use the heat pump! https://speedqueencommercial.com/fr/products/hardmount-washer-extractor/?lang=en https://speedqueencommercial.com/fr/products/hardmount-washe...
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoNOt mine! I live in the country, but the county gas pipeline crosses our property. The easement (written 50 years ago) permits us to connect as a customer. So all our appliances are gas.
- henvic 4y agoBad choice nonetheless. Get a heat pump dryer and you'll save a lot and your clothes will last longer.
- pandaman 4y agoSaving depends on the cost of gas and electricity, so you might be right for some locales and wrong for others (to the point that a heat pump dryer will cost more than gas dryer), but how do you imagine clothes will last longer? Do you think temperature causes more wear than a spinning drum?
- henvic 4y ago> how do you imagine clothes will last longer? From my own experience + the fact that it dries at a much lower temperature.
- pandaman 4y agoI am questioning that fact. In my experience temperature is not destroying fabric, people used to iron their clothes for decades. Spinning in an underpowered dryer for longer will put more wear on the fabrics and stitching.
- bombcar 4y agoYou can kind of compare the amount of lint you get, but often that is caused by the washing machine and not the dryer.
- 4y ago
- mlindner 4y agoEvery house with a washing machine has a dryer in the US. Also many are gas powered instead of powered by electricity. Similiarly for any laundromat or laundry room in an apartment complex. I've yet to have ever been to a location in the US where a dryer was not directly adjacent to the washing machine.
- bombcar 4y agoI've seen a few cases, but they're rare. Much more common in the south and the desert where the weather is almost always sunny.