How to Save on Electricity: Hang Drying Laundry

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How to Save on Electricity: Hang Drying Laundry

Staff Writer · Sep 2, 2010

Learning how to save on electricity costs in your apartment can help you better manage your budget and decrease your negative impact on the environment. You won’t even have to give up on all of your comforts if you just trim unnecessary usage, such as using a dryer to dry your clothes.

Why Choose the Dryer

Deciding how to save on electricity costs and usage in your apartment should first involve trimming the total waste and excess. Of course, you can’t cut back on the electricity your refrigerator uses or make drastic changes to other necessary appliances you use. You may be hesitant to cut back on using the computer of TV, for example, because you get entertainment from them.

A dryer, though, holds little function other than convenience. If you invest in a clothes line, you can have time and/or the sun do the job for free. If you have a balcony, you can hang your clothes outside, but some clothes lines are meant for use over the dryer, over the bathtub or wherever you have the space. There are a number of countries, including many European and Asian countries, where household dryers are rare because they don’t have the space, nor want to waste the electricity to use them. Instead, they rely on hang drying.

Average Cost of Using a Dryer

You may be wondering, rather than just how to save on electricity by hang drying laundry, just how much money you’d be saving. The cost of running your dryer annually varies depending on the model of your dryer, the cost of electricity in your area and how often you dry clothes. However, several studies have found that the average cost of using a dryer is anywhere from $85 to $175 annually. After the refrigerator, which has to run constantly, the dryer may be the most costly appliance you run in your apartment.

Best Type of Clothes Line for the Apartment Dweller

When living in an apartment, tying up a basic clothes line permanently, whether on your balcony or inside your home, may not be convenient because you need to make the most of all available space in the apartment. For example, if you want to hang the clothes line over your bathtub, you’ll need to move the clothes line out of the way daily in order to shower.

Deciding how to save on electricity by hang drying laundry in the most convenient method means that instead of a traditional clothes line, you should invest in a retractable clothes line. These models of clothes lines are stored in a circular base that you can stick on the wall of the location in which you’ll be using it. When needed, you can pull out the clothes line to a maximum of about eight feet and stick or hook it on the opposite wall. When finished, simply unstick or unhook the opposite end and then click the base to retract the line.

Understanding how to save on electricity by opting to hang dry your laundry instead of using a conventional dryer may not seem like it’ll save you a lot of money, but you probably wouldn’t choose to just throw $85 to $175 away each year, which is what you’re effectively doing. Plus, cutting back on electricity usage where you can is part of being a responsible person who’s concerned for the environment.

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