In a house that uses the average 30 kWh/day, these easy changes that don’t cost much in time, money or convenience could potentially save: 3 kWh/day on lighting, 3.9 on standby energy vampires, 3 on heating and cooling by reducing leakage, and 3 on the dryer. Converting those kWh/day to carbon and pocketbook savings, that’s 3.5 fewer tons of carbon put into the air every year, and a 43% reduction in the electric bill.
You read that right: 85%. My family of four uses, on average, 4.7 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per day. Our electric bill never tops $32 per month. In the past we used just over 30 kWh/day, which is about average in the U.S., although there is huge variation. In our state, the average is over 36 kWh/day.
…Our journey started when our roommate moved out and took his clothes washer and dryer with him. I was seven months pregnant with my first child. I did not want to spend a huge chunk of change on white goods. I did not want to drive the production of more appliances, or pay to run a dryer, or heat up the house and the planet while wearing out my clothes faster.
We bought an Energy Star front-loading washer, but not the matching dryer. Even though we live in a very humid area…
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Yes. She lives in the southern US, so heating isn’t the same sort of electrical issue it is in the upper midwest, but turning things off and looking for efficient appliances is certainly possible. We’ve just had a mild January here in Iowa, with average daytime temps in the 20s and lower 30s most of the time, down to 0-15F at night, and in a house twice the size of hers, with central heating turned down to 60-64F and oil-filled radiators and fluffy bathrobes in use, we average around 12-14 kWh/day. I was actually working at home today and somehow didn’t notice the temp go down on the thermostat schedule to 60F. Lands’ End bathrobe, people.
Clothes drying is a real issue in winter in very cold places, but I remember the “you’re doing something dangerous” pause I used to get when I mentioned rack-drying my clothes in winter a few years ago here. It didn’t occur to me then, but I expect people were thinking of drying the clothes in a damp cold basement after using an old top-loader, which would indeed give you moldy clothes. The water extraction job newer front-loaders do is pretty great, though, and, like most forced-air houses, mine’s got one particularly warm dry room. That’s where the drying racks go, near the vents. Nothing gets moldy.
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Thanks for the great tips, and then she thought better of it.
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