E is for Electricity and Energy

So officially we are using the energy from the sun to dry our clothes!  

It's been a sultry July, and we've been sweating it out around here, NOT using our window ACs to cool the house, even at night.  To the chagrin of the family, I've opted to deal with a little bit of humidity and pull the cooler air in by window fans because the thought of our electric bill doubling due to ACs has not been appealing!  During the cooler morning, we suck cool air in, use the window shades to keep out the heat, but,  I now will feel less guilty about using the ACs if the mercury rises because we are not sucking power for the dyer....and in this house of 6 we do more loads per week than the average household (that is a discussion for another time!).   

On a side note, I do need to invest in a dryer rack as well because the ladies of the house (excluding myself) are in an UPROAR that their unmentionables might be seen.  Mind you our backyard is as private as can be this time of year, we can't see any of our neighbors houses because of the gloriously green trees!  

I couldn't resist a quick tally of the watts used by the 5 window units: including  4 window units in the bedrooms and one larger unit that cools the downstairs...those ACs use up a grand total of 4026 watts!!! 

And then I had to compare the wattage of the overworked and underpaid dryer - that baby sucks up a whopping 4400 watts and gets a workout weekly, and often daily all year long!!!

I'm hoping that using the sun to dry the clothes will offset the times that we use the AC, and that in the long run we will save electricity and energy since we can use the clothesline even when we don't need the AC :)  

Can't help but smile about summer!

C is for clothesline...

C is carbon footprint, compost, cleaning supplies, and clothesline...

Growing up, my Mom had a free-standing umbrella-style spinning clothesline, and I can remember standing on my tippey toes and helping her take the clothes off the line.  When a friend asked if I'd greened my laundry yet, I had to admit that the only thing I'd done so far was to use cold water instead of warm or hot, and I've switched to eco-friendlier laundry detergent.  But I know we can do better!  

I checked out some info on the net, and found some pretty interesting info.  Here are 10 reasons to use a clothesline from www.laundrylist.org

Why line-dry?  For starters, dryers use 10 percent to 15 percent of domestic energy in the US.

10. It saves money — more than $25 a month on electric bills for many households.
9. Clothes last longer when line-dried.
8. Clothes and linens smell better without exposing your body and the environment to potentially toxic chemicals in many detergents, bleaches and fabric softeners.
7. It can conserve energy and the environment, while reducing climate change.
6. It is moderate physical activity that you can do indoors or outside.
5. Sunlight bleaches and disinfects.
4. Indoor racks can humidify in dry winter weather.
3. Clothes-dryer and washing-machine fires account for about 17,700 structure fires, 15 deaths and 360 injuries annually. The yearly national fire loss for clothes-dryer fires in buildings is estimated at $194 million.
2. It is fun. And it can be an outdoor experience that is meditative and community-building.
1. Line drying clothes demonstrates that small steps can make a difference.

With these reasons fresh in my mind, I began looking into installing an old fashioned clothesline to dry the clothes with the power of the sun instead of paying for the electricity :)  There are basically two types,  the umbrella-style spinning clothesline which is typically installed on a post in the ground with cement  (I did see one at Lowe's) and the pulley-type of clothesline (which is much less expensive, and the materials area also available at Lowe's).  I decided I wanted a pulley-type, and we found out what hardware and supplies we'll need, and went so far as to buy the items.  But then the project stalled as life got more hectic than usual and we had an ah-ha moment that I'm glad we had before doing the project.  We realized that the distance from the house to the tree, is pretty long and that traditional cotton clothesline will sag and stretch a lot as a result.  We thought back to a dog run we had at one point that went from the house to the same tree, and decided we'd have to get creative and instead of traditional cotton clothesline, we will have to use coated wire to support the weight of the laundry over the distance similar to the dog line.  

There lots of different options for installing outdoor clotheslines too.  I found some good info on the following sites:
http://www.clotheslineshop.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=C

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,1558520,00.html
www.laundrylist.org
I'm very  excited to see how it helps to decrease the electric bill and the yummy sunshine smell of sun-dried laundry!    Stay tuned and I'll let you know how we make out...