Have Increasing Energy Prices Caused Change in Your Laundry Routine

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No I haven`t changed my laundry habits and I won`t but I`ve reduced my energy consumption where it really matters like having a less pleasantly heated space in winter which means wearing a thick pullover at home or having a blanket by my couch and so on.
And when weather permits I go by bicycle more often instead of driving short distances by car.

Well, to be honest I tried washing at lower temperatures with increased wash times as a short timed experiment but I didn`t like it so I went back to tried and true.

I can be very cheap too but generally I think it makes more sense to save on Euros than on Cents. To me it isn`t worth to change something that important (LOL) like a good laundry routine just to save a few cents per load.
 
I use Extra Hot/Heavy/2x rinse on everything

I think the added energy usage is negligible with this combo, since it's a front load. I prioritize deep cleaning and sanitizing over saving maybe two or four bucks in the course of a month. My washer (LG WM3900, recently replaced a 6yo LG-made Kenmore FL) usually reaches 160 after about 20 minutes into the wash cycle. With Persil or Tide Hygienic (plus bleach for whites) nothing stands a chance.

As for water usage, front loads have always been water efficient since they came out in the 1940s or whenever. Even with two extra rinses my machine comes out ahead.

I will say that I rarely have to dry anything longer than 30 minutes, since the max spin leaves everything pretty well extracted.
 
I try

But washing hasn’t changed. I still use hot wash warm rinse for whites ect
T.L machine. (Gas water heater)
Line drying is about the best I can do. (Electric dryer)
I don’t know how to read the new smart meter, but when we still had analog meters, I noticed how fast it turned when running the clothes dryer vs having all lights on in the house!
Since then, I try to line dry as much as I can as I’m guessing the dryer is a big hog?
 
I mean, there are certain usage statistics that are relatively even across every part of the earth with similar climate conditions.

You need to know what uses how much and then work through the high usage items step by step.

Heating is usually the biggest energy usage.
I live on a tiny 322sqft and still use about 1000kWh a year for heating even though target temp this winter was 16C/61F only raising the bathroom to 21,5C/71F for showering every second day.
Then the question is what you heat with. If you are already heating with gas - like this apartment complex is - you can't really go cheaper.
If you are heating with resistive heat and have central air like common in the US, going for a heatpump next time around just makes sense. Dosen't need to fully replace you current heat source - the same size as your current air conditioner will usually work perfectly fine 80-95% of your heating season.
But biggest saving is just mediating temps and having good heat control with good programming - keeping your house at 70F the entire day if you're gone for 8h and sleeping for 8h is pretty useless.
There are edge cases of course. My mum has under floor hydronic heating, so switching temps during the day does very little.

The same goes with hot water.
If you are going with gas hot water, very little saving potential.
If you have electric, heat pump next time around etc.
Same with temp holding. Because my mum lived alone for some time now in the house we shared as 7 a decade ago, our hot water storage was way oversized. Solution? It only heated for an hour a day in the early morning. Because it was very well insulated it only dropped like 20F max in 24h and she barely used a tenth of it on a weekday.
I use a maximum of like 50kWh of warm water a month with an average around 30kWh, so even if I cut that in half, that's not even a day's worth of winter heating.

Next is refrigeration.
It's usually quite a huge, but forgotten load.
Switching from a fridge that uses 2kWh a day (which isn't unbelievable with US fridges) to something that uses half (1kWh a day) saves the equivalent of some 50 full loads in a US vented dryer.

Washing can be a huge difference aswell.
When a TL uses 20gal of hot water, where a FL uses only half that in total, you can cut your hot water usage in 1/4th there as well.
Scale that by the number of loads you do.
My machine uses 1 to 1.2kWh in energy for a full load on "hot" (140F) all included and only about 0.5-0.6kWh on "warm" (104F).
Drying of course is the whole heat pump thing. The new LG full size heat pump dryer has a rated connected load of below 900W. A full size dryer is like 5kW.
Sure it doesn't heat non stop - but just keep in mind you can run the LG 4-5 times as long as the vented dryer with the same energy usage and you see why even doubling dry time still saves 50% or more.

Cooking is actually a matter aswell, but not quite as much as one thinks.
Our ovens use about 1kWh for 1h of baking. Running a microwave for an hour is like a max of 1.5kWh. Pan cooking isn't that much of a usage as it's usually quite a short time and not a full power for long.

Dishwashing then is another matter.
I pay about 0,5 cents per liter of cold water.
My DW uses 1kWh running of of cold and 0.5kWh on hot. Water usage is about 1/3 of the energy usage of that cycle.
In comparison, even on the highest water usage cycles, my washing machine uses about the same in water as in energy.

It's really about looking where you actually use a lot of energy and where you can save it.
That also means where you are willing to sacrifice something to save.
And if you aren't willing to sacrifice in any way, well, that's that.
 
Re:22

Stan you're pretty close on how much it cost to run a dryer here in Northern California. It’s right around $1.50 a load on tier 1 level and damn close to $1.80 at tier 2. Anything that generates heat are BIG consumers of electricity.

BTW to access the readings of your PG&E SMART meter go to the PG&E website and log onto your account by creating a user name and password that is linked to your account number. Then you can see how much you are using both in kwh’s and dollars and cents hourly, daily and monthly. It’s quite enlightening to see just how much you are using according to what appliances you are using at the time.

Eddie
 
" I noticed how fast it turned when running the clothes dryer vs having all lights on in the house!"

Generally anything electric that generates heat (or removes it to create cold) consumes moderate to vast amounts of energy. Things like light blubs aren't that huge of a demand draw.

Heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, water heating, cooking (range top, oven or various other appliances), and so forth usually are largest consumers of electricity.

This was not lost upon certain generators or suppliers of electric power back in day. They sold (or in some instances gave away IIIRC) large appliances with good reason. Those appliances would create demand and owners would pay higher electricity bills.

In many parts of USA fuel of choice for say clothes dryers, heating, hot water, cooking, etc... depends upon what is cheaper; gas or electric. That and of course what is available.

Plenty of homes in northeast would love gas for heating, cooking, heating, hot water.... which usually is cheaper than electric. But their street/area doesn't have natural gas service so that limits their options.

You want to see an electric meter spin? Plug in and fire up a vintage roaster say from Westinghouse.
 
We have a gas furnace as well as a gas tankless water heater. So, honestly the electric bill stays pretty tame except when we have to run the air conditioning in the summer. And we have to run it, because Indiana summers can be brutal. As far as laundry goes, I can't say we've changed much of anything except machines in the past few months. I generally do two loads of clothes per week in warm water, and a load of towels in hot. Every three weeks, I wash three sets of full-size bedding in one load. They are really thin sheets so they all fit easily. I almost always use the auto sense fill on my TL washer unless I'm washing blankets or spreads, and I generally do that once a season or so.

Last month, we used about 450 KWH of electricity (that's an approximation, for the exact amount I'd have to look), and the bill was $79. It usually fluctuates about $10 in either direction of this amount, except for the summer when it's usually somewhere around $100. Gas is usually around $50 in winter, but goes down to roughly $20 in summer.

So, I'd say our prices are pretty fair.

Ryne
 
Thanks Eddie. Never knew that

It seems like when I noticed the spinning meter was back around 1999 2000 I think ?
At the time there were brown outs happening in Ca and at the time I had a Maytag set..the old copper colored set.
The neighbor had a brand new G.E set.
We both were trying to see what used the most electricity.
We were turning things on and off in our houses and taking notice of the spinning. We both decided that our dryers were kind of a hog while in use.
I remember helping her string up a clothesline when she saw how fast her brand new dyer spun her meter!
And we were both surprised to see that her new “energy saving” dryer spun the meter just as fast as my old Maytag. All very high tech analysis LOL
Ryne. I wish we had your energy rates! Here PG&E has seen fit to raise both gas and electric rates
(Poor things.. those CEOS at PG&E are just scraping by ya know)
We’re stringing up cloth lines and they're fartin in silk!
 
One of stated reasons (or benefits if you will) of rinsing laundry in warm water is supposedly it causes dryer to use less energy.

Back in 1970's or so with energy crisis in full flow Consumers Report and others said while a small amount of energy was saved by dryer not having to heat "cold" laundry (and thus coming up to temp faster), heating water consumed more energy. In their view allowing dryer to do it's thing still resulted in energy savings over using warm water for rinsing.
 
"The iron is the small appliance that uses the most electricity."

True, but much would depend upon what sort of iron one was using (steam or dry) and type of ironing being done. For latter that is ironing damp laundry dry versus using a steam iron on dry laundry.

Steam irons use energy two ways. First to heat water converting it into steam. Second is to heat soleplate which helps with ironing but also to some extent dries out steam coming from iron.

If one is ironing damp laundry soon as soleplate meets cold or cool textiles it will there will be a decrease in temperature causing heating elements to power on. This will occur with both dry and steam ironing.

Back in day housewives and others were advised if they couldn't get to their damp ironing right away to put things in refrigerator. Well that works fine for slowing down or preventing mildew, but if taken straight from fridge and ironed those cold textiles are going to do a number on iron. Latter will have to struggle in order to keep soleplate at proper selected temperature.

Dry textiles still will reflect ambient temperature of area they were kept in, but you don't have the effect also of moisture/wetness which acts to cool surfaces.
 
Hello Dear

My main reasons for rinsing in warm water is because I think it rinses better. Especially after a hot wash.
The idea of slamming cold water onto hot laundry 🤔 well you know.
My iron is pretty old too and who knows the draw it pulls
(I’d need a kilowatt meter to see) But I like this old iron it’s heavy and I’m comfortable with it
I feels as close as I could get to the old irons we had when I worked in dry cleaning.

stan-2024041002532003495_1.jpg
 
High power small appliances-don't forget portable countertop microwaves,and portable small grilling and cooking machines.The ones I have run about 1200,1300W each.Same with the small microwave oven.On one cooking show video the cook used an upturned iron to cook on a hotplate wasn't available.The iron made for a good improptu hotplate!
 
Stan, all you have to do to see the wattage draw of your iron is to turn it over and look at the ratings on the underside of the heel rest. The wattage is limited by the standard circuit capacity in the house, generally around 1000 watts and, of course, that is not a full time draw as the electricity is cycled off and on by the thermostat.

Launderess, there were two types of steam irons, boiler and flash. The boiler types did heat water in a tank to make steam while the more modern flash type generated steam by dripping water on the back of the hot soleplate. This design allowed for more compact and streamlined iron designs.
 
Hang drying laundry, clothes lines, etc

I realize hang drying clothes is really popular on this site and there's no doubt it's a great way to save energy. However, the dryer is just a convenience I'm afraid I couldn't give up easily. We live in a 700 sq. ft. apartment, and there's literally no yard at all to put up a clothes line. I know there are those collapsible drying racks, but they take up a lot of room when in use and it just seems like a hazard, especially with Stacye's wheelchair trying to get around. Plus, with being a caregiver I just don't have the patience to be messing with all that. So, we really don't buy clothes that can't go in the dryer. The few items we own that are hang dry, like a couple of Stacye's summer dresses, I just throw over the shower curtain to dry. But yeah, owning hang-dry clothes is such a nuisance to me that we check the tags in the store, and if the item has special instructions of any sort, back on the rack it goes. I just don't have the time or energy to be fussing over it LOL

Ryne
 
I just put my shirts and sweaters on a hanger and let them dry.  Pants get hung from a clip type hanger the same way, no need for a clothesline. 

 

Between using a FL washer and not tumble drying there is very little wear on my clothing.
 
Reply #36

Matt, that makes a lot of sense actually. What about other items, like towels/rags, socks, underwear? Do you tumble-dry those? I think that's what would be the most annoying bit for me if I didn't use the dryer, all those little items hanging everywhere.
 

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