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Using Your Clothes Dryer Properly to Save Money

To start off, this technique can be used to save money if you use a clothes dryer at a laundromat or while using the clothes dryer in your home.

If you don’t already know, two of the biggest energy hogs in your home is your water heater and your dryer. Your dryer is essentially a self-contained heater and thus, will consumer relatively large amounts of energy. What a lot of people don’t know, is a lot of the energy used in drying your clothes is wasted either through setting the temperature too high, not filling the dryer up enough to take advantage of a cycle, or setting it to run for too long.

Try setting your dryer at a lower temperature and stick to the same time interval. I bet your the clothes will still come out dry. Try filling up your dryer instead of drying one wash load at a time. Dry two washer loads at a time to save energy. Also, consider air drying heavier item such as jeans and sweaters on a drying rack. Not only will they save you money, but your jeans and sweaters will last longer.

Another thing that is often forgotten is to clean your lint tray after every load. It is not a daily thing and it has to be cleaned after every cycle.  Even a small restriction to airflow will slow the drying process significantly by not allowing the dryer to get rid of the moist air properly.

To solve a lot of this problems with dryer energy waste, some dryers have a feature that automatically senses when the clothes are dry and will shut down. Even though this is a feature than might lead you to a more expensive dryer, the premium will pay for itself over and over during the life of the product. It also will net you a high quality dryer which in most cases will last longer and will be built with better parts and thus a better warranty.

With these small dryer energy tips, you can save money monthly while extended the life of your clothes and your dryer. You can’t complain with that deal.

Though this will be a small savings, when coupled with other small savings around your home, it can lead to a greatly reduced power bill at the end of the month.

Try it out.

Tags: dryer, energy savings, green, home, laundry