Have Increasing Energy Prices Caused Change in Your Laundry Routine

[launderess]

"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.

 

[launderess]

Have always preferred Liza Douglass way of using electricity.

Just plug things in until a "fooze" blows. That's when you know are using too much power.

 

[stan]

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.

 

[tolivac]

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!

 

[tomturbomatic]

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.

 

[ryner1988]

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

 

[mattl]

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.

 

[ryner1988]

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.

 

[mattl]

Yup, towels, bedding and such go in the dryer. The only downside is some stuff needs a light ironing, but I always do  that anyway.

 

[stan]

I saved as much as possible today

One med white load and one med color load.
I did use hot/warm for white and warm/warm for colors. But PG&E didn’t get my $3.50-$4.00 for drying.

 

[ea56]

Stan,
I love your laundry room with that beautiful Maytag EL and your clothesline and backyard too!
Eddie

 

[qsd-dan]

It's mostly depends where one lives. In my area, electricity is rather cheap and not tiered at all, same price 24/7.

That's a pretty big 180 from New York and California.

 

[henene4]

I have a small balcony, basically 4 by 6 feet.
There's just enough space for a normal drying rack, and that has exactly the space for all my underwear and socks to go in the summer.

Everything else that isn't a special care item goes into the dryer.
With the dryer barely ever using more than 1kWh no matter what, that isn't such a big issue.

 

[askolover]

Nah, gas water heater and gas dryer. Not much to change. The Miele doesn't have to heat much since the washer sits right beside the water heater.

 

[polkanut]

We do most, if not all laundry on weekends when our electric rates are cheaper. And the suds-saver option on our Maytag Dependable Care machine is used almost all the time as well to increase savings. 

 

[thomasortega]

No changes here at all.

Water heater always set to maximum temperature the thermostat allows, Clothes meticulously sorted, Landlord freaking out because of the water bill outrageously expensive and I still take many baths per day.

 

[frigilux]

Have not changed laundry habits. I have a front-load washer and an electric dryer. The electric rate in this very small town is only 9.54 cents per kilowatt. Water heating and furnace run on natural gas, which is also inexpensive here.

 

[ea56]

OMG Eugene $0.954 per kwh of electricity! We haven’t had rates that low here for over 20 years! Live it up and wash everything in sight and throw it in the dryer. We pay over 4 times more.

Eddie

 

[good-shepherd]

We live in a 700 sq. ft. apartment,

Well that explains your $50 gas bill in the winter..

 

[polkanut]

Our off-peak electric rate on nights, weekends and holidays is $0.07 per kwh. Now you can understand why we do our laundry during those times. 

 

[mattl]

Mine is too, but if you add in all the fees it's more like .13

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Well for a while I have been changing our wash cloths and towels every day then doing two loads of them as well as other miscellaneous towels and linen about every other day, until realizing we're paying a lot for our water, barely escaping the Late Date on our bill...

 

So I may have to just change just the wash cloths that I think are gross using more than one or two days in a row while towels I just dry with I think are okay to leave up for a few... My wife even bought a few new linen sets and we have lots of wash cloths though often mis-matched and too buried in the rest of the line to easily find...

 

So maybe I pretty much kept our laundry routine the same, though with a fairly large washer being able to do one big load as long as it's not too big, and whatever compromises here and there on what I need to frequently wash and can get by just drying with, concerning the bath linen stated above...

 

 

 

-- Dave

 

 

 

[launderess]

Washcloths

Are used once maybe twice then go to the wash.

Intimate nature of use means the things just get grotty.

Besides becoming breeding ground for germs and such residue from soap or whatever cleanser builds up. Persons often notice that often their once brilliant white washcloths have become grey. That's in good part due to soap/much residue that wasn't remove during laundering.

Anyone who wishes to test how clean washcloths (or bath towels for that matter) are after laundering have one suggestion; boil them. You'd be surprised at what comes out of even so called "clean" washcloths or towels.

 

[qsd-dan]

Just checked my rates, it's.049 per kWh.

Out of curiosity, I checked my pervious residence in Chargeafornia..... it's .53 kWh.

You folks need to start a revolution out there.

At least those bastards (PG&E) made me good money off of their stock when it plummeted into IPO territory of the early 70's back in 2019 (7-ish dollars a share) and rode it up to $18 (I think it peaked around $24). Promised myself I'd NEVER touch that stock again, then it plummeted down to something like $3.30 when their ass was in the hot seat with the Paradise fire and I couldn't help myself so I picked up more and sold it off around $12.

Bloody criminals...

 

[ea56]

Dan,
As I stated in reply #7 PG&E currently charges $0.42 per KWH in tier 1, $0.52 per KWH in tier 2. But I have no doubt at it won’t be long before its $0.53 per KWH or more! I believe the we have the highest electric rates in the USA.

Meanwhile, the CEO of PG&E earned more than $50 million dollars in 2021. Something is REALLY wrong with this!

Eddie
https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2022/04/pge-ceo-earned-more-50-million-2021

 

[Marky_Mark]

Meanwhile, in Southern California...

In Palm Springs, our gas and electric rates are tiered.  But we do have the option of switching the electricity to time-of-use.

 

Gas starts out at $0.05/kWh and then increases by 2 cents to $0.07/kWh.

Electricity starts out at $0.35/kWh and then goes up by 10 cents to $0.45/kWh.

The above prices include all taxes, fees and adjustments.

 

We always end up in the higher tiers, so any change to our usage will be reflected in the higher tier rate.

 

This means that the price of our electricity is a whopping 6.5x the price of our gas.

 

I have not made any changes to my laundry routine.  My water is heated by gas (I have never seen an electric water heater here) and my dryer is gas (gas dryers are very common in this area).

 

Mark

 

 

[jamiel]

I don't think Gold Medallion/Total Electric was much of a thing in the desert. SoCal Gas was a big proponent of "balanced energy" which meant that they had gas pipes laid into subdivisions/homes and hooked up heating/water to that. Condo complexes are sometimes total electric in Palm Springs (Mesquite CC, for instance--600 units) but smaller duplex/quadplex condos generally have gas.

 

[tomturbomatic]

My aunt and uncle lived in what my cousin called "Seizure World" one of those Rossmore over 55 communities. It was total electric and the whole concept used to be featured in ads in Life Magazine. The electrical outlets were at chair height and all GE equipped. I was amazed that the washers were GE, water hogs in a desert. Those were later changed out for Neptunes. This was in Laguna Hills, just up the canyon from the beach.