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Dryers in the US consume ~3% of residential energy budget, 6x washing machines
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- firefax 2y agoMany townships make line drying illegal, at least in PA.
- Ccecil 2y agoAlso, quite a few lease agreements I have had place restrictions on it.
- ryandrake 2y agoWhat public good could possibly come from such a restriction/ban?
- morkalork 2y ago"We don't want the building to look like a ghetto". Seriously. That's the explanation I got from the rental manager for why it was banned on their property.
- Ccecil 2y agoIt is mostly cosmetic. (Lowers property values in the eyes of the investor) In my case it would be 2 lease violations since simply putting up a line would be a second violation for doing "unapproved work". Lease agreements are a bit out of hand...especially in states with little/no renter protections.
- ryandrake 2y agoI am imagining the Clothesline Police climbing up the fence to peek into your backyard to see how you are drying your clothes. We truly have run out of real things to be upset about and are just inventing more.
- firefax 2y ago>What public good could possibly come from such a restriction/ban? Often it's to keep out the "wrong" sort -- don't want some uppity poor moving into your school district. So small things like hanging your laundry to dry or hosting a lemonade stand will have the cops rolling up on your house. (Yes, that's right -- I witnessed a township cop come destroy a child's lemonade stand signs, demand they disband, and threaten to cite the parents, and ultimately arrest the father within a week of living in an allegedly "upscale" neighborhood.)
- dzhiurgis 2y agoI once did some math and rain water tanks around auckland(by far most common way to get water if you don’t have municipal source) cost less than the land that they sit under. My guess it might be similar to rotary dryer - the land under it costs more than lifetime of power your dryer will use. P.S. if you have lots of small kids then at some point hanging out tons of small clothing becomes an exponential chore.
- johntitorjr 2y ago[dead]
- svggrfgovgf 2y agoFlorida has a statute that prevents local governments and HOAs from banning or prohibiting "solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources" http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0100-0199/0163/Sections/0163.04.html http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Displ...
- toomuchtodo 2y agohttps://www.energystar.gov/products/clothes_dryers/heat-pump-dryer https://www.energystar.gov/products/clothes_dryers/heat-pump... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw183KZQNwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw183KZQNwc
- bell-cot 2y ago> Over the lifetime of a dryer, 100% line drying could save a household upwards of $2,100. That would also cut back CO2 emissions by more than 3 tons per household over the same time. Though the contrast between dryers and line drying is stark, it’s not surprising, the researchers said. Sad to say, I know people who've spent well over $2,100 on the dryer itself. (Initial purchase, then repairs.)
- danielbln 2y agoPurely monetary speaking, that doesn't seem like a lot. Let's say 10 years lifetime, $210 per year, $18/month so that I don't have to spend a ton of time hanging up laundry the bdey? Totally worth it (inviting the CO2 factor, though our heat pump dryer is very very efficient).
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 2y ago[flagged]
- danielbln 2y agoI'm German, but thanks for the insightful comment. Once your cloths rack doesn't just contain beach towels and boxershorts you might appreciate the utility of a dryer.
- lurking_swe 2y agoi mean if your goal is to save time completely, might as well pay the laundromat to wash, dry, fold, and deliver everything to your door. That would actually save you a lot of time. But hanging clothes to dry? Not really. Draping clothes over a large clothing rack takes me about 10 minutes (2 adults in my household). I only put bed sheets and towels in the dryer, which means the cycle finishes much more quickly too. 10 minutes of saving a week is basically nothing, no? It’s also much faster for me to put away my laundry because i already sorted my clothes when hanging (put all shirts together, all shorts and pants together, etc). A nice bonus is my clothes last much longer.
- favorited 2y agoI have an electric clothes dryer in my apartment, but growing up my family always had natural gas-powered dryers. Even when my parents added a washer/dryer to their bathroom, they ran a new gas line for it.
- jasonthorsness 2y agoI switched from electric to gas in my last move. Gas is faster and according to the article, cheaper. This is one of those areas where it might be possible to save energy, but I prefer to live in a world where I can choose to spend energy in this way. Line-drying the few clothes that can't go in the dryer indoors often seems to end with them smelling mildewy. I think a huge factor not touched on in the article is how an investment in faster spin cycles (or switching from top-load to side-load high-speed spin) could dramatically lower drying times and save energy as well.
- alabastervlog 2y agoWashers and dryers already do a lot of harm to clothes. My guess would be faster spin cycles do more harm than slower.
- bdcravens 2y agoStrangely enough, the home I bought in 2022, which was new construction, has gas stove and water heater, but no gas in the laundry room. (I'm sure I can have it run relatively inexpensively if I chose)
- huang_chung 2y agoNot strangely, it is regional preference. Go to Lowes or HD and see what housewife in that area prefer; there will be 20 models of one kind and 2 of other kind.
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y agoIs the laundry room and the gas stove on the same level? I was told when I (illegally) hooked up a gas stove that building code didn't allow running a gas line between two levels of the house.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoNo mention of heat pump air dryers? They save considerable amounts of energy. Probably not enough to make up for the increased costs, though -- AFAICT most people install them because they don't require a vent outdoors.
- tayo42 2y agoRelevant to my life. Anyone have experience with these? They seem pretty uncommon in the the US. Thinking about pulling the trigger on an all in one heat pump to replace an all in one with a condenser. So many mixed reviews about heat pump dryers saying they don't dry well.
- rssoconnor 2y agoFWIW, I got a combo washer dryer, specifically this one https://youtu.be/x44YAiVCbAY https://youtu.be/x44YAiVCbAY (not my video), because I don't have a dryer vent. While it was a pretty big upfront cost, the combo does have the advantage of entirely reimagining how one does laundry! Specifically because it both washes and dries you can just run it overnight and in the morning you take out dry clothes. So no more laundry days; every night is a potential laundry night. Not only is it energy efficient, it also runs on my ultra-low overnight time of day rates, because that is simply the most convenient time of day to run it anyways. I think the above video review covers basically everything. I do agree the clothes do not come out super dry, and sometimes I do run it a little longer, or let things air out a bit. Clothes are usually fine and sheets are slightly less fine. Also there is no lint trap, so I have to keep wiping out the lint. Overall I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages with not having to babysit the washing machine ensure wet clothes are transferred to the dryer in a timely fashion.
- Symbiote 2y agoI've had one for almost 10 years, but I didn't have a dryer at all before that so I can't compare it to a 'normal' dryer. My only comparison is commercial-grade dryers on trips outside Europe, where I've been astounded at the thickness of the power cables or even natural gas connections. The default programme, which I almost always use, takes a relatively long time. Clothes have a slightly-damp feeling when it's finished, but it quickly disappears in the time I take to fold them.
- floxy 2y agoI wonder how ultrasonic dryers have been doing lately. I don't know anything about them, but heard about them at an ARPA-E conference a while back. Don't know if this is still very low TRL, or just massively too expensive, or really doesn't work all that well. But they are supposed to be much more electrically efficient. https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/no-heat-no-problem-ultrasonic-dryer-dries-clothes-half-time https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/no-heat-no-problem-ultr...
- jerlam 2y agoI recently unplugged my dryer and stopped using it, but for a dumb reason: I moved it for cleaning, the dryer vent detached itself, and there's not enough space to reattach it without moving the washing machine. Previously I was already line-drying over half of my clothes. Dryers add additional wear, can shrink or deform items, and a lot of my clothing is synthetic or wool. The cost savings was a bonus, since the dryer is already there and fed by gas. There's a drying rack in the corner of my home that just never goes away. Some items come out rough like towels, and things that need ironing with a dryer need even more ironing when line dried. But it's rare that I need an article of clothing that can't wait overnight to be line-dried.
- absolutelastone 2y agoIt also depends on the weather where you live. Unless you don't mind clothes that smell funny. In Japan they don't commonly use dryers and mostly hang dry everything (except maybe Okinawa where I guess it's too tropical). But their bathrooms as set up to operate as a big dryer. You dry both your clothes and the bathroom itself.
- andrewstuart 2y agoThere’s no benefit to a clothes dryer. They cost money, take space, ruin your clothes, are bad for the environment.
- m463 2y agoThere's got to be some health benefit to having clean dry clothes and towels.
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- jmclnx 2y agoIt is too bad many Cities made it illegal to hang cloths. I use to do that years ago, but now you get fined. So instead we use the dryers and toss chemical sheets in the dryer to give the cloths a 'fresh smell'. Time to repeal those laws.
- tacticalturtle 2y agoWhich cities made it illegal to hang dry clothes? I know some HOAs unfortunately do.
- jmclnx 2y agoHere you go, came up in a simple google search :) https://www.livinggreenandfrugally.com/drying-your-clothes-on-a-clothesline-banned-in-19-states/ https://www.livinggreenandfrugally.com/drying-your-clothes-o...
- tacticalturtle 2y agoThat site is mistaken. I live in Massachusetts and can tell you with certainty you are not banned from having a clothesline, notwithstanding an HOA rule in place. In fact, the states given by that page are all listed as “right to dry” states - meaning associations do not have the right to ban clotheslines: https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/20_right_to_dry_states_outlaw_clothesline_bans_is_yours_among_them https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/20_right_to_dry_stat... Although note this information isn’t accurate either - because Massachusetts never passed it’s right to dry law - it got stuck in committee: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/190/S1117 https://malegislature.gov/Bills/190/S1117 There seems to be a circle of sites here regurgitating the same incorrect information. Regardless, I don’t understand how any state or municipality can ban clotheslines.