The Clothes Dryer

The number one frugal tip for summer time is to put your laundry out in the yard! Do I have your attention yet?
I found a fantastic site that estimates just how much we are spending on our comforts of life. http://www.electricity-usage.com/Electricity-Usage-Calculator.aspx
I checked my electricity bill from last month. We pay just under 11 cents per Kwh. I also used the preset amount for the clothes dryer. I don’t know exactly what the wattage is on mine. I don’t really keep up with things like that. So these are just good general numbers.

If you use it for an hour, which I would say is typical for a load of clothes with jeans and towels in it, then it will cost you 60 cents per load. Wow! Somehow I didn’t realize that it was this much. I wash at least 2, sometimes 3 loads of laundry everyday. This is one of the joys of having a big family. I would average this out to say that we spend $1.50 every day on the clothes dryer. In a 30 day cycle, this adds $45 to the electricity bill. Good grief! I pay $45 dollars to dry my clothes?

Now let’s keep in mind that this is only the cost of the dryer. This does not include the air conditioning costs. Um, lady, what does the air conditioner have to do with drying clothes? A lot actually. The dryer, while most of the warm air is going out the vent, a lot of the heat is being put into the air of your home. It heats up the house, which must be cooled back off using the air conditioner. Sorry, I’m not going to calculate the ambient temperature losses on my dryer and the energy to cool a set number of cubic feet a certain number of degrees over time. I’ll just remind you that the longer and harder that the AC has to work, the more you have to pay!

The clothes line has been in use for centuries. There is a reason: it works. It’s practically free. I don’t say that it’s free, because there are a few expenses beyond the initial set up. My children believe that clothespins are either disposable or indestructible. I haven’t quite figured out which. I have watched from my kitchen window as the boys have yanked on shirts, sending pins flying across the yard, while bringing in dry clothes. Of course I correct them and send them back outside to pick up each pin that they have launched, but we always seem to lose a few. After a few launchings, they break. So each spring I head back to the dollar store for yet another set of pins. By the end of summer, I’ll be down to just a few again. I’m happy to spend the $2 on clothespins instead of the $135 it would take to dry clothes inside for 3 months.

Drying clothes: $2 for clothespins vs. $135 for the electric dryer Liz price = 98.5% off! I think that we have set a new record!!!