Saving Energy when Drying Clothes

Whenever you dry or wash your clothes it costs money and energy, just like when driving a car, baking cookies, or anything else in life. Especially if you do laundry for a whole family, it would be beneficial to find ways to cut back on energy usage and money. So to help you along in your goal of frugality (and environmentalism) here are a few tips to get you started:

• Dry your clothes outside as much as possible. Air drying can also be beneficial to your skin by reducing the amount of bacteria that can still be in your clothes even after washing. Air-drying is, in general, more energy efficient, whether it be inside or outside.
• If you need to use the dryer, spin the clothes in the washing machine first and then use the medium instead of the high setting on your dryer. By spinning the clothes, you'll be getting rid of the excess water and making it so the clothes will dry quicker. The lower heat setting will also be more energy efficient.
• Sort out heavyweight and lightweight clothing and dry separately. Heavier clothes take a longer time to dry and will take more energy if you dry them with lighter weight clothes that don't take a long time to dry. By separating you cut down on drying times.
• Dry consecutive loads to take advantage of residual heat left in the dryer after the first drying session. By utilizing the constant heat left over in the dryer after continual uses throughout the day, it won't take as long for your later loads to dry.
• Regularly clean the filter in your dryer to ensure maximum efficiency. A blocked filter can add to running costs. You should clean out your filter from lint after every use—it's not hard, doesn't take up a bunch of time, and greatly helps reduce your energy usage.
• Do not overload or under load the dryer. If you overload then the dryer won't be able to function to its full capacity and if you don't fully utilize the clothes capacity then you are essentially wasting energy.

Saving energy when drying clothes isn't impossible and can definitely help to reduce your monthly energy bill. Many of these ideas just use basic, domestic common sense. There is the need to be frugal in today's times and so by keeping an eye out for these money and energy saving opportunities you'll be doing yourself a huge favor. These are pretty simply tips, but if followed they can make a big difference, both environmentally and financially.