Cold Water: The Future Of Laundering

[joeekaitis]

And when was the last time you saw . . .

 

 

. . . 100% cotton socks and tees labeled <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">MACHINE WASH HOT, CHLORINE BLEACH OK, LINE DRY OR TUMBLE DRY HIGH</span>"?

 

Is that kind of language taboo?

 

[appnut]

It's been at least 8 years.  Hanes used to have those instructions until 5-8 years ago.  I still wash 'em in hot. 

 

[washer111]

Same

Underwear and socks, in particular, but also my lights/brights get HOT water, and some oxy-bleach of some variety too.

Most of them generally say "THINK CLIMATE: COLD WASH, LINE DRY" and right below, "WARM, GENTLE MACHINE WASH, DO NOT TUMBLE DRY, DO NOT IRON, DO NOT BLEACH, DO NOT DRY CLEAN"

Given that the FL machine is so gentle, I'm seeing about 3-4yrs out of underwear and socks nowadays, even with reasonably long, hot washes. Compare that to a TL that would ruin underwear after about 1-2 years, in cold water only...

 

[tomturbomatic]

Pepco, our sad electric utility spends money to send out energy use statements each month to waste more of our utility dollars. In the latest one, it suggested lowering my electric usage by hanging the clothes out to dry. It is to laugh, as the Russians used to say, because in the summer, I use gas clothes dryers and all year round, my laundry is spun super dry before going into the dryers. I think the greatest revenge on them would be to install photo voltaic panels and just eliminate them from the picture. They must have junior college dropouts coming up with conservation ideas. They want me to live like households in the early 50s. I'd like to find out how to opt out of receiving their foolish reports.

 

[gusherb]

Energy Reports

I get those from ours too, and since its inception 4-5 years ago we've gotten not a single report saying that we used equal or less then our "neighbors", always higher. They also had "home energy assessments" which all they did were put low flow aerators/shower heads in and put in CFL light bulbs. I never got one but many of the neighbors did, and learned that there houses were already "efficient".

A lady also tried to sell me one of those boxes that shuts your air conditioner off right when you need it most. She tried to make it sound "cool" and "green", I started naming reasons why I don't need or want it and she stormed off in a huff!

Ok enough of my OT rant about useless utility company "energy saving" programs...

 

[DADoES]

 
Regards to care instructions for socks ... happens I bought a package of socks yesterday.  Gildan brand.  83% cotton, 16% polyester, 1% spandex.

 

[suburbanmd]

Energy use statements

We're also in Pepco's service area and get energy use reports. It didn't take long for my wife to point out that the "most efficient neighbors" might not even be home much of the time.

 

[mrb627]

LOVE THIS!

"A lady also tried to sell me one of those boxes that shuts your air conditioner off right when you need it most. She tried to make it sound "cool" and "green", I started naming reasons why I don't need or want it and she stormed off in a huff!"

Malcolm

 

[jerrod6]

My Electric distribution company, PECO Energy, also has energy information but it is in the form of a website where you log on to your account and see your usage by year, month, day and hour.  It always tells me I use less than my neighbors, but I use more than the most 20% of my most efficient neighbors.  I could never figure out who these most efficient people are, but perhaps it is the same situation as pointed out by Suburbandmd.

 

Since the graphs are by day and hour I CAN see when I wash some loads of clothes.  I have a tankless gas water heater, but I can see when the heater is on in my washer when I wash at 120F or higher.  It is only for 1 hour or at most two  and the cost goes up by $.15 for that hour so no big deal to me.  I'll pay $.15 to have hot washes. 

 

[gusherb]

To top it all off they were offering a $10 monthly credit June - August for having the box. Sorry but that's nothing to an already $300 utility bill and If I wanted to save that $10 monthly I'd turn the t-stats up to 76 from 72, rather then have them dictate that for me. Plus we already have two 13 SEER systems that are installed properly and run efficiently.

And I agree about the energy use statements with the "efficient" neighbors probably never being around, and are probably also single living in a smaller home that doesn't cost much in utilities to begin with.

 

[retro-man]

We receive those energy statements also. The main house we live in is very low rated since we have a business downstairs. Now the other house where we are 2 to 3 days a week, we ARE the efficient neighbor LOL. I feel I have reached efficient status. Hey 1 place is better than non.

Jon

 

[arbilab]

Oklahoma City electric tried to sell me one of those 'shutoff the air' boxes in 1983. Thing is, in this region if you shut the air off for a half hour in midafternoon it doesn't recover until 10pm.

No deal.

 

[lordkenmore]

"Efficient neighbors"

Or they could be people just as real as Betty Crocker.

 

[jerrod6]

GusherB

You are in Illinois.  Who is your Electric provider?

 

[warmsecondrinse]

I'll have to check tags, but I have (or used to have) a few BLACK items with tags advising me not to wash them with darks.

Jim

 

[gusherb]

Jerrod

I live in Northwest Indiana. The utility here is NIPSCO. in Chicago and Illinois suburbs it's ComEd. They both do pretty much the same things incentive wise.

 

[tolivac]

I have one of those "boxes" connected to my HVAC system and water heater.Was supposed to save me like 10 bucks each month.Haven't noticed the thing being used.The GUC (Greenville Utilities Commission) replaced the device once.When it is used the device isn't activated more than 15 min at a time.And remember at one time utilities sent a special coding to activate the boxes thru a local AM station.Use some other means now.

 

[DADoES]

 
The local electric coop has a program to install control boxes on air conditioning compressors (they don't do variable speed or ground source) and water heaters (not heat pumps).  I had heard they also do pool pumps but there's no mention of them on the service description.  Load is shed for 7.5 mins at at time only when system load management is active.  Participation garners a $25 monthly billing credit during June, July, August, and September for each water heater or compressor that's controlled ... so potential $200 yearly credit.  The aim is to stay under the peak load (statewide?) for the month so control is done only during the timeframe when a peak is expected to occur ... ideally only once per month on the peak day, but typically for a few hours 3 or 4 days since predicting peaks is not an exact science.

 

[jerrod6]

This unit was offered to me a few years ago, and yes it was to be activated via electric lines during peak periods.  My problem with it is that the peak period as defined by my company was between 10am  and 2pm and then 5pm until 8pm.  The control would not be activated unless there was an "event".  I guess the company decided when and what the "event" was. 

 

If  you have been working in AC then walking home or even driving home in 90+ degree heat only to enter a house in which the AC is being switched off - to me not so good.

 

The other thing for me is that I keep the t stat at 78 from 7:15 am until 6Pm, then it is lowered to 76, then 75 at 10pm...and I am home all day, so just when I am trying to lower it to a more comfortable temp the compressor will be turning off.  it can take a good 3 or 4 hours of continuous run to reduce the temperature of the house so turning off and on seems like it is prolonging the process, using more energy and keeping me hot in the process.  I live in the middle of the city so when it is very hot, there is little night time cool down. After sundown heat continues to be reflected off of buildings and side walks so cool down can be about 87 and very humid at 10pm,  

 

We have had peak days on the Weekend - announced on the radio.  What happens if you have a houseful of guests and little or no AC?  I guess - Let them be hot.

 

I decided to control the running myself.   As for reduction objectives of the company....let the CEO get his bonus some other way that does not involve me being uncomfortable. 

 

In the end I guess none of this might matter anyway because now we have smart meters that send a reading to the company every hour or at least record it every hour because the usage by hour  and cost by hour show up on the web site.  This gives the ability to charge more per Kwh during peak periods. 

 

[DADoES]

 
The angle for electric cooperatives is that they operate as non-profit (with required margins) and are member/customer-owned ... so any reduction in cost of power purchased is passed to the user (the effective rate is different on every bill).  The coop does decide when to enact load management, with input from the wholesaler.  It's not unusual that they get a call to shed load and they don't do it based on experience that the monthly peak will occur on a later date.  The intent is to shed for the necessary time period only on the one day of the monthly peak demand.  If I understand correctly, there's a separate meter group for controlling industrial loads, which may be shed without involving residential.

 

[tolivac]

The load managment unit at my place isn't activated for more than 15min at a time in like a 2 or three hr period.And it is only used when the weather is very severe-like high temp in summer or very cold in winter.For the time the unit cycles my water heater or AC compressor off-its not noticable.I cycle the unit to 75 or more at night then lower when I am sleeping by daytime.I feel I do more "load management" then the "box" does.