Divorce your Dryer

While switching to front loading laundry sets is guaranteed to produce savings on your utility bill and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, freeing yourself of your dryer altogether will likewise reduce your bills and greenhouse gas emissions without having to invest in a dryer upgrade. The “right to dry” campaign, as it’s been dubbed, is taking the humble clothesline from grandma’s backyard to the pages of the New York Times, the Globe and Mail and Time Magazine.

While clotheslines are part of the culture in places like India and Asia, they have been regarded as a marker of poverty and aesthetically displeasing throughout much of North America. Thus the onset of clotheslines bans both municipally and by communities via residential associations and developers in the 1980s.

The clothesline is now coming back into favour because of its greenhouse gas emissions saving ways. Albertans are jumping on the clothesline bandwagon a little slower than other Canadians though. A survey by Natural Resources Canada found over one quarter of households in the Atlantic and Quebec regions hung their clothes out to dry during an average week in the summer of 2003, whereas only five per cent of Albertans used a clothesline during the same period.

Photo Courtesy of Helen Corbett

After spending five years on an organic farm in BC where she was without a washer and dryer, followed by time in Nelson where clotheslines are a fixture at every house, Gillian Hillerud hangs her laundry out to dry at her Sunalta rental house from habit.

“I don’t even think about it. In Nelson, I’d go out on my deck and look at the neighbourhood and everyone had a clothesline or two – then I came to Calgary and practically no one has a clothesline – it’s crazy.”

Hillerud and her partner Dylan Edmiston asked their landlord before they installed their clothesline. He was happy to grant it since he foots the utility bill.

An Indiana University study found that almost seven per cent of the energy consumed in the U.S. is from clothes dryers. Another study from Cambridge University looked at the ecological footprint of clothing – evaluating the type of material used, manufacturing process, shipping and lifetime care. It concluded that 60 per cent of the energy associated with a piece of clothing is spent in laundering it.

Indeed, a clothes dryer is typically the second biggest consumer of electricity in a household, costing around $100 to operate annually, according to the California Energy Commission.

Hillerud, is happy to capitalize on the energy savings. “There are so many pros to having a clothesline – especially if you’re paying your own bills. I think people just don’t even think about it, most people probably grew up in a house with a clothes dryer. It’s conditioning – you do what you’ve always done.”

During the winter, Hillerud and Edminston hang their clothes on hangars on the shower rod or wherever there’s space.

Still like your clothes dryer?

These tips will help you make efficient use of it:

• Use a clothes dryer with a moisture sensor. It will automatically stop drying once your clothes are dry.
• Situate your dryer in a heated area. Locating it in a cold space makes the dryer work harder.
• Dry full loads, but don’t overfill the dryer. A good balance is most efficient.
• Dry two or more loads in a row to make use of the dryer's retained heat.
• Clean out the lint screen after each load. This will save 30 per cent on energy use.
• Clean the outside exhaust regularly as a clogged exhaust lengthens drying time and increases energy use.