Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

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Randomize
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by Randomize »

Just an FYI: if you use a efficient front-loading washing machine, you actually notice most of the savings in your dryer's energy usage as compared to using an old top-load washer. The front-loaders have a much faster spin cycle that knocks out most of the water before you even dry them so if you have a front-loader, don't expect to save much money on energy by hanging your clothes rather than using the dryer. Now if you don't buy a dryer at all, there's some real savings.
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Murray Boyd
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by Murray Boyd »

It's great for getting out berry stains.
MIGIHIDARI
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by MIGIHIDARI »

WendyW wrote:
Whit wrote:Added bonus to line drying, your clothes last longer.
This ^

Colors seem to stay bright way longer if you can avoid the dryer.
Not sure what the science is behind this.
Bright colors will fade in the sun. BUT, if you hang clothes inside out, fading is not a problem :happy
MIGIHIDARI
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by MIGIHIDARI »

lightheir wrote:
MIGIHIDARI wrote:Have lived in Japan for the last 5 years. No house has a drier in this country. Everyone dries their clothes outside. If it rains, they just wait for sun to wash their clothes. It is normal to see clothes hanging on the balconies of multi storey buildings. It is a shame that my home town Honolulu condos have rules against drying clothes in the sun. I have tried and neigbors have complained to the condo board and I had to use the drier! What a waste in presence of so much sun. Then they talk about energy conservation. I have seen many people who live in single family homes in Hawaii,hang their clothes ooutside.

Regarding clothes getting stiff in the sun, yes they do but you get used to it. Iron them and no more stiff! And unless you live in some really polluted air, there is no "outside" smell to the clothes. Try it, you will like it.

Another related story from Japan: People here hang their bed cushions (Futons), bedsheets etc in the sun specially in winter. Bed feels warm in cold weather if you bring it inside before sunset.
Wow - is this actually true? I haven't been to Japan but also have never heard of a lack of dryers in the country - that would be new to me!
Yep, it is true. This is the third place we are renting and there is no dryer. I just polled my 12 Japanese co-workers and none of them have clothes dryer at home. I live in a 12 storey building and I can see every home drying their laundry in their patios.
Japan is a beautiful country. You must visit even if it is just to see the laundry in the sun :happy
Hyperion
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by Hyperion »

MIGIHIDARI wrote: Another related story from Japan: People here hang their bed cushions (Futons), bedsheets etc in the sun specially in winter. Bed feels warm in cold weather if you bring it inside before sunset.
This is done pretty much throughout Asia. People relish the chance to hang out their DRY comforters on a sunny winter day. Down comforters become soft, lofty and smell heavenly after an hour or two in the sun, and all the body moisture you didn't know it absorbed is gone. Where I live now, the winter is too harsh for that and I miss it.
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by travellight »

I do a mixture of both. I take out towels and dry them in the sun and do all small clothing in the dryer. It is done sooner without the towels.
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leo383
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by leo383 »

We have a drying rack in a corner of our bedroom, and any clothes that are nice or expensive get air dried. Dryer drying cuts the life of the clothes by quite a bit; all that heat and friction wears them out faster.

A regular T shirt that is always HE Washer washed and then air dried can last me a couple years or more. One year at most if it is dryer dried.
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Cosmo
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by Cosmo »

WendyW wrote:
Whit wrote:Added bonus to line drying, your clothes last longer.
This ^

Colors seem to stay bright way longer if you can avoid the dryer.
Not sure what the science is behind this.
Disagree. Over time, the sun is very tough on fabrics, especially if the clothes are consistently left out there longer than 1-2 hours. Not only will the colors fade but certain fabrics will become brittle and weaken. This whole method sounds a bit extreme to me and inconvenient, not to mention the stiff, scratchy feel to them.

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Lon
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by Lon »

No It's not worth the hassle. Despite the 100 F plus weather we have in this part of California and the fact that clothes hung out to dry will dry quickly, why subject them to air borne pollens, dust and bird crap, not to mention the waste of my valuable time. Oh sure the clothes are nice and crisp, why not, with all that bird crap, pollen and dust stuck to them as they dry.
Give me the clothes dryer any day. :happy
mptness
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by mptness »

I live among the Amish who may be the most frugal people in the US. Needless to say they do not use clothes dryers. They have also mastered the engineering of clotheslines. You haven't seen a clothesline until you see one stretching 100 feet from house to barn, hanging a family of ten's laundry 20 feet or more in the air. All done with large pulleys and plastic coated wire.
protagonist
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by protagonist »

magellan wrote:Your post made me curious, so I googled and found this nifty online calculator.

It says it costs around $.50 per load if your dryer uses electricity and $.34 per load with natural gas.

Jim

Is it really worth the time and effort of hanging an entire load of clothes on a line to save 34 cents? (Add to the effort the eyesore in your yard if you don't have a huge property and like being outside, and that if you are like me, you will probably forget to take your clothes in when it rains).
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lightheir
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by lightheir »

protagonist wrote:
magellan wrote:Your post made me curious, so I googled and found this nifty online calculator.

It says it costs around $.50 per load if your dryer uses electricity and $.34 per load with natural gas.

Jim

Is it really worth the time and effort of hanging an entire load of clothes on a line to save 34 cents? (Add to the effort the eyesore in your yard if you don't have a huge property and like being outside, and that if you are like me, you will probably forget to take your clothes in when it rains).
Probably not from a strictly financial point.

However, I still find it wasteful to use a dryer when it's nice and toasty outside - makes me feel similar to leaving lights on throughout the house when the sun's out. (Probably costs similarly actually for a whole year in terms of savings.)

And as some said, you can do it inside and it works fine if your house is in the typical 75F range - just takes a bit longer (usually a bit longer than overnight for cotton, less if it's polyester)
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VictoriaF
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by VictoriaF »

It depends on what you put on the cloth line...

Image

...and where you put it.

Image

Victoria
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protagonist
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by protagonist »

VictoriaF wrote:It depends on what you put on the cloth line...

Image

...and where you put it.

Image

Victoria
You have good taste.
protagonist
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by protagonist »

lightheir wrote:
protagonist wrote:
magellan wrote:Your post made me curious, so I googled and found this nifty online calculator.

It says it costs around $.50 per load if your dryer uses electricity and $.34 per load with natural gas.

Jim

Is it really worth the time and effort of hanging an entire load of clothes on a line to save 34 cents? (Add to the effort the eyesore in your yard if you don't have a huge property and like being outside, and that if you are like me, you will probably forget to take your clothes in when it rains).
Probably not from a strictly financial point.

However, I still find it wasteful to use a dryer when it's nice and toasty outside - makes me feel similar to leaving lights on throughout the house when the sun's out. (Probably costs similarly actually for a whole year in terms of savings.)

And as some said, you can do it inside and it works fine if your house is in the typical 75F range - just takes a bit longer (usually a bit longer than overnight for cotton, less if it's polyester)
I think of units of labor/time vs units of benefit. It's a lot less work and takes a lot less time to turn off a light than to hang clothes on a line. But you are right...hanging clothes on a line is a good thing for the world. Basically,you are probably a better person than I am.
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by bpp »

lightheir wrote:
MIGIHIDARI wrote:Have lived in Japan for the last 5 years. No house has a drier in this country. Everyone dries their clothes outside. If it rains, they just wait for sun to wash their clothes. It is normal to see clothes hanging on the balconies of multi storey buildings. It is a shame that my home town Honolulu condos have rules against drying clothes in the sun. I have tried and neigbors have complained to the condo board and I had to use the drier! What a waste in presence of so much sun. Then they talk about energy conservation. I have seen many people who live in single family homes in Hawaii,hang their clothes ooutside.

Regarding clothes getting stiff in the sun, yes they do but you get used to it. Iron them and no more stiff! And unless you live in some really polluted air, there is no "outside" smell to the clothes. Try it, you will like it.

Another related story from Japan: People here hang their bed cushions (Futons), bedsheets etc in the sun specially in winter. Bed feels warm in cold weather if you bring it inside before sunset.
Wow - is this actually true? I haven't been to Japan but also have never heard of a lack of dryers in the country - that would be new to me!
Yes, it is true. We never owned a drier until recently when our washer broke, and the replacement happened to have a drier mode available -- which we have used maybe once or twice.

First, driers use a horrible amount of electricity, and electric rates here are somewhat high.
Second, driers are thought to destroy clothes (all that tumbling and heat).
Third, our shower room (showers/baths in Japan generally have a whole room to themselves) has a "drier mode," which just fills the room with warm, dry air, and can be used as a clothes drier by hanging clothes on a rail in the shower room, without all the damaging tumbling action of a laundromat-style drier, on rainy days. But even that we hardly ever use.

And anyway, sun-dried clothes just smell nicer.

And everyone does it, so there is no embarrassment in hanging one's undies out for the world to see.
jridger2011
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by jridger2011 »

leo383 wrote:We have a drying rack in a corner of our bedroom, and any clothes that are nice or expensive get air dried. Dryer drying cuts the life of the clothes by quite a bit; all that heat and friction wears them out faster.

A regular T shirt that is always HE Washer washed and then air dried can last me a couple years or more. One year at most if it is dryer dried.
Line drying dark color tshirts make them last much longer. I try to use a drying rack for dark colored clothing to preserve the color.
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VictoriaF
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by VictoriaF »

protagonist wrote:You have good taste.
sometimes.
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lightheir
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by lightheir »

protagonist wrote:
lightheir wrote:
protagonist wrote:
magellan wrote:Your post made me curious, so I googled and found this nifty online calculator.

It says it costs around $.50 per load if your dryer uses electricity and $.34 per load with natural gas.

Jim

Is it really worth the time and effort of hanging an entire load of clothes on a line to save 34 cents? (Add to the effort the eyesore in your yard if you don't have a huge property and like being outside, and that if you are like me, you will probably forget to take your clothes in when it rains).
Probably not from a strictly financial point.

However, I still find it wasteful to use a dryer when it's nice and toasty outside - makes me feel similar to leaving lights on throughout the house when the sun's out. (Probably costs similarly actually for a whole year in terms of savings.)

And as some said, you can do it inside and it works fine if your house is in the typical 75F range - just takes a bit longer (usually a bit longer than overnight for cotton, less if it's polyester)
I think of units of labor/time vs units of benefit. It's a lot less work and takes a lot less time to turn off a light than to hang clothes on a line. But you are right...hanging clothes on a line is a good thing for the world. Basically,you are probably a better person than I am.
At least for me, the hanging time is trivial. I don't use a clothesline - I use a drying rack, and everything just goes right out the washer onto the rack, nothing fancy. Takes me less than 3 minutes to fill up the rack with clothes, haphazardly. I just make sure no big overlaps are present. I'm really time crunched and also wouldn't do it if it weren't cakewalk easy, but it really is.
protagonist
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by protagonist »

bpp wrote: First, driers use a horrible amount of electricity, and electric rates here are somewhat high.
How can 50 cents per load (or 34 cents with a gas dryer) translate into a "horrible amount of electricity"? I suppose that is possible for a large family, if you do tons of wash. As a single guy with a lot of underwear and socks, I probably do a large load every week or so. I imagine I would use more energy driving one mile per week. My local power company sends customers out a "report card" every few months, and I am always in the "outstanding" group, using less energy than 95+ percent of my neighbors despite living in a 4 br house. So I doubt that my dryer does much to alter my carbon footprint.
bpp wrote:Second, driers are thought to destroy clothes (all that tumbling and heat).
I hang up my delicate items to dry. But I still have t-shirts from the 1990s that I have dried regularly and are in excellent shape. I typically dry things on low heat. I think that claim is way overstated.
bpp wrote:Third, our shower room (showers/baths in Japan generally have a whole room to themselves) has a "drier mode," which just fills the room with warm, dry air, and can be used as a clothes drier by hanging clothes on a rail in the shower room, without all the damaging tumbling action of a laundromat-style drier, on rainy days. But even that we hardly ever use.
You are fortunate.
bpp wrote:And anyway, sun-dried clothes just smell nicer.
For how long? Sun-dried towels certainly don't feel nicer.
bpp wrote:And everyone does it, so there is no embarrassment in hanging one's undies out for the world to see.
I briefly lived in a condo with my gf who hung her underwear out, until she got a letter from the condo association asking her to "cease and desist", because the female psychologist who lived behind her was offended by looking at her panties and bras. Who would have thought? (laughing) Only in America.
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by Mudpuppy »

protagonist wrote:
bpp wrote: First, driers use a horrible amount of electricity, and electric rates here are somewhat high.
How can 50 cents per load (or 34 cents with a gas dryer) translate into a "horrible amount of electricity"? I suppose that is possible for a large family, if you do tons of wash. As a single guy with a lot of underwear and socks, I probably do a large load every week or so. I imagine I would use more energy driving one mile per week. My local power company sends customers out a "report card" every few months, and I am always in the "outstanding" group, using less energy than 95+ percent of my neighbors despite living in a 4 br house. So I doubt that my dryer does much to alter my carbon footprint.
Keep in mind that anything which lists electrical use in "cents per whatever" instead of "kilowatts per hour" (kWh) is being a bit overly simplistic. It ignores the actual cost per kWh for your electricity. Those of us here in CA want to know the actual kWh and how long it takes to dry a load to determine our true costs, due to our tiered electrical prices.

It's much more difficult to find the kWh usage of electric dryers since so many just use "cents per load", but I see values ranging from 3kWh to 5 kWh on a simple web search. Let's split the difference and call that 4kWh on average. And let's say, for simplicity's sake, that it runs for exactly one hour (although many run for more or less than this time, depending on load). At Tier 4 PG&E electric rates of 35.114 cents per kWh, that's $1.40 a load, not 50 cents a load. It's only 50 cents a load if you're lucky enough to have a flat rate of about 12.5 cents per kWh.

If you are doing a load (or several loads) of laundry a day, that can add up very quickly. And you don't have to be a large household to have near daily laundry pop up (just ask anyone with small children or very elderly family members in their household). Individual circumstances vary, so your situation is different from others' situations, and your solutions may not be viable solutions for others in different circumstances.
sunnyday
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by sunnyday »

Murray Boyd wrote:It's great for getting out berry stains.
It's great for baby poo stains too. My wife just tried it and it's like magic. Just water and direct sun -- no harsh chemicals needed
gt4715b
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by gt4715b »

Some thoughts:

1. Isn't the UV from sunlight as harsh on clothes as a drier used wisely (low heat)? UV light can definitely fade colors pretty quickly in my experience.

2. Newer, fast spinning washers make indoor rack drying the best option in my opinion. The clothes come out almost dry.

3. If you live in the suburbs, some HOAs discourage or prohibit clothes lines.
protagonist
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by protagonist »

Mudpuppy wrote:
protagonist wrote:
bpp wrote: First, driers use a horrible amount of electricity, and electric rates here are somewhat high.
How can 50 cents per load (or 34 cents with a gas dryer) translate into a "horrible amount of electricity"? I suppose that is possible for a large family, if you do tons of wash. As a single guy with a lot of underwear and socks, I probably do a large load every week or so. I imagine I would use more energy driving one mile per week. My local power company sends customers out a "report card" every few months, and I am always in the "outstanding" group, using less energy than 95+ percent of my neighbors despite living in a 4 br house. So I doubt that my dryer does much to alter my carbon footprint.
Keep in mind that anything which lists electrical use in "cents per whatever" instead of "kilowatts per hour" (kWh) is being a bit overly simplistic. It ignores the actual cost per kWh for your electricity. Those of us here in CA want to know the actual kWh and how long it takes to dry a load to determine our true costs, due to our tiered electrical prices.

It's much more difficult to find the kWh usage of electric dryers since so many just use "cents per load", but I see values ranging from 3kWh to 5 kWh on a simple web search. Let's split the difference and call that 4kWh on average. And let's say, for simplicity's sake, that it runs for exactly one hour (although many run for more or less than this time, depending on load). At Tier 4 PG&E electric rates of 35.114 cents per kWh, that's $1.40 a load, not 50 cents a load. It's only 50 cents a load if you're lucky enough to have a flat rate of about 12.5 cents per kWh.

If you are doing a load (or several loads) of laundry a day, that can add up very quickly. And you don't have to be a large household to have near daily laundry pop up (just ask anyone with small children or very elderly family members in their household). Individual circumstances vary, so your situation is different from others' situations, and your solutions may not be viable solutions for others in different circumstances.
Yes, that sounds fair, if the economics work differently for you. I was generalizing from an earlier post.
Last edited by protagonist on Mon Aug 26, 2013 11:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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lightheir
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by lightheir »

gt4715b wrote:Some thoughts:

1. Isn't the UV from sunlight as harsh on clothes as a drier used wisely (low heat)? UV light can definitely fade colors pretty quickly in my experience.

2. Newer, fast spinning washers make indoor rack drying the best option in my opinion. The clothes come out almost dry.

3. If you live in the suburbs, some HOAs discourage or prohibit clothes lines.
I'll just add that my clothes look a lot newer from air (or sun) drying than using the dryer. The lint is all the damage done to your clothes, getting frayed out.

I think the sun exposure is overrated in terms of damage as well - I've got some athletic clothing that's over 7 years old, gets sun every time its used, and the colors are still bright and bold. Sure, most of it is poly, but even my older cotton style t-shirts that have been almost all air-dryed show zero sun damage.

If I use a dryer in comparison, that new looking cotton T-shirt looks well used after a mere 4 washes.
gt4715b
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by gt4715b »

lightheir wrote:
I'll just add that my clothes look a lot newer from air (or sun) drying than using the dryer. The lint is all the damage done to your clothes, getting frayed out.
I wonder if it's really the washer that causes the damage to the clothes. Maybe dryers are just more efficient in removing the damage (lint) than air drying.
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frugaltype
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by frugaltype »

protagonist wrote: Is it really worth the time and effort of hanging an entire load of clothes on a line to save 34 cents? (Add to the effort the eyesore in your yard if you don't have a huge property and like being outside, and that if you are like me, you will probably forget to take your clothes in when it rains).
I don't think it's an eyesore, I think it looks rather pleasant, although I don't do it due to the stiffness of the results
taegirain3
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by taegirain3 »

Bike shorts / pants (with chamois pads) are damaged by machine drying cycles, so I have to.

Will look at doing more though, had never considered the costs in this level of detail.
heyyou
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by heyyou »

Since the laundry room was full of cabinets, we put a closet clothes rack across the adjacent hallway, as high as we can conveniently place a clothes hanger. With near white walls, the white PVC pipe is not noticeable, but there are no teenage boys trying to use it as chin-up bar. The fittings are U shaped, so the pipe is easily removed.
rr2
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by rr2 »

We live in a place where it rains quite frequently -- like almost everyday. We do have a clothesline outside but it is under a covered porch and gets little direct sun. Clothes also take longer as humidity is quite high :(
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lightheir
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by lightheir »

gt4715b wrote:
lightheir wrote:
I'll just add that my clothes look a lot newer from air (or sun) drying than using the dryer. The lint is all the damage done to your clothes, getting frayed out.
I wonder if it's really the washer that causes the damage to the clothes. Maybe dryers are just more efficient in removing the damage (lint) than air drying.
I'm pretty sure its the dryer. Even logicaly - which do you think does more damage - sitting outside for 1-2 hrs air drying, or being buffeted in high heat, while getting run across a lint collection grid that physically adds damage?

Just launder any brand new colored cotton shirt 4 times and compare it to air drying 4 times - it'll be quite obvious which one has taken a lot more damage. If you have different textured decoratives (like permanent adhesive type stickers on some t-shirts), it becomes really obvious when they start breaking down.
Oilburner
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by Oilburner »

lightheir wrote:Just curious - with all the summer sun we get here, it's very easy for me to dry my laundry loads outside in the sun. Even full thick towels dry within 1-2 hrs in the typical afternoon sun. I'm not a treehugger, but I get a strange sense of satisfaction by not using my dryer and just using the good ol' wooden clothesrack in the backyard.

I've heard that clothing dryers are a big source of energy consumption in a household, but I dont have any real data to support that rumor.

Is the cost or energy savings of not running a dryer, say twice per week, worth it at all? Or is it so small, even if thousands of people do it, to be not a significant factor in home energy consumption/conservation? I guess I was curious as well since we just updated our washer/dryer after the washer broke, and we did end up getting the energy-efficient washer (the dryer apparently can't readily be made more efficient), and I couldn't help but immediately thinking that I could save more energy than the efficient model just by bypassing the dryer. (Yes I'm aware that if it's cold out, rainy, outdoor drying is not going to work.)
Using the drier will, in addition to the energy used, increase the cost of heating and cooling your house if the drier occupies the conditioned space and if you are using the heat or air conditioning. This is because as the drier runs, its blower draws air in from the room and this creates a slightly negative pressure in the room, which draws in the same amount of air in from the outside as flows through the drier. This air must be heated or cooled by your furnace/heat pump or air conditioner to maintain the thermostat set temperature. I do not have a feel for this cost.

Also, I think cloths last longer line drying since a drier removes some of the fabric material (as can be seen on the lint filter). Using a drier adds to the overall cost of having to replace cloths more often.

The maximum power an electric cloths drier (typically 220 volts on a 30-amp circuit) can use is 6.6 kilowatts per hour, since it is on a 30-amp line. But the circuit has some excess amperage capacity as a safety margin. Also, electric driers usually do not have their heating elements on full time, so an electric cloths drier for consumer use should use a bit under 6.6 kw/hour due to the heating element cycling on and off, based on the dryness of the cloths (as they get drier, the heating element cycles off more). Let's say it is 5.0 kw/hour on its high-heat setting. If electric rates are 12 cents per kw-hr., then the energy cost would be 60 cents per hour for a load of heavy towels, but if it takes 40 minutes to dry the load, the electricity cost is 40 cents per load.

Natural gas driers are more economical. Figure the electricity used to turn the drum and blow air through the drier is 300 watts and the burner uses natural gas at a rate of 17,061 BTUs per hour (just a guess, the drier rating plate will reveal this), the electricity would cost 2.4 cents and the natural gas, assuming a cost of about $1.15 per therm (100,000 BTUs) costs 19.6 cents per hour. Add the electric and gas costs gives 22 cents per hour.

Although I did not know the exact rate of energy consumption of the electric and gas driers (they are probably close), what I did know was that for 5000 watts of heat, this equals exactly 17,061 BTUs of heat so I did illustrate a reliable comparison of gas vs. electric costs to operate, since all the heat from the gas burner dries the clothes, since the burner is exhausted through the drier drum.

So you can decide if it worth hanging out your cloths to save 22-40 cents per load (plus wear and tear of your drier). I do it and it drives my wife nuts.
Barefootgirl
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Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by Barefootgirl »

ah yes, that thing called perspective.

For me, line dried clothing is a luxury I cannot yet afford.

I'm a 30 year economic refugee from the rust belt and metro living prohibits this luxury.

The smell is rapturous on the pillow at night.

I hope I can have it again one day.

BFG
How many retired people does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Only one, but he takes all day.
beachplum
Posts: 276
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:11 pm

Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by beachplum »

In Spain it's not common to own a dryer, if you live in a city apartment you have a clothes line outside your window. It cracked me up to see clothes line drying everywhere, especially in the more upscale neighborhoods. It wasn't so funny when your clothes fell off the line to the street below. Reminded me of the tenements in NYC growing up.

I do a combination of mostly indoor drying on a rack and gas dryer. The pollen in MA is awful from Spring thru half the summer, not to mention the humidity and rainy summer this year so not very practical, in my opinion, to always be hanging laundry outside.
protagonist
Posts: 9277
Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2010 11:47 am

Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by protagonist »

beachplum wrote: I do a combination of mostly indoor drying on a rack and gas dryer. The pollen in MA is awful from Spring thru half the summer, not to mention the humidity and rainy summer this year so not very practical, in my opinion, to always be hanging laundry outside.
I live in MA as well, plum. I actually watched a bird poop on a silk shirt I had hanging outside today. So much for the wash cycle. Anyway, after reading all this, it gave me a laugh. Serves me right for hanging my laundry from a tree I suppose.
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VictoriaF
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Location: Black Swan Lake

Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by VictoriaF »

protagonist wrote:I actually watched a bird poop on a silk shirt I had hanging outside today. So much for the wash cycle. Anyway, after reading all this, it gave me a laugh. Serves me right for hanging my laundry from a tree I suppose.
An old Russian joke suggests a way for dealing with this:

A prominent Western businessman was frequently traveling to Moscow, and each time he was introduced to some of the most beautiful women. On one visit he has requested an ordinary Russian woman. His associates tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted.

And so a stocky woman in drab clothes and worn out shoes comes to his hotel room and after greeting him goes to the bathroom. The businessman waits 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes... Finally he knocks on the door and asks what's going on. The woman responds that after she took a shower there was some soap left and she is doing her laundry.

Victoria
Inventor of the Bogleheads Secret Handshake | Winner of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. | Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)
MIGIHIDARI
Posts: 61
Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 7:24 pm

Re: Drying clothes in the sun - worth the hassle?

Post by MIGIHIDARI »

VictoriaF wrote:
protagonist wrote:I The woman responds that after she took a shower there was some soap left and she is doing her laundry.

Victoria
Wonder if she dried her clothes on a clothes line :happy
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