Welcome to our regular Monday-morning blog feature, where we share easy tips and DIY projects that you can do this week to live more sustainably!If you haven't already setup your sustainability profile at MakeMeSustainable, you can start by visiting http://makemesustainable.com. If you live in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, you'll automatically join our local group! The Chapel Hill/Carrboro “carbon tree” already has over 280 members who have reduced their annual emissions by over 70 tons. Join us!
This week's project: Saving energy on laundry day
Unless you own a spa, the clothes washer & dryer are among the most energy-intensive appliances in your home (see the US Department of Energy). You can save a LOT of energy by changing your "laundry day" routine a bit. Here a few ideas - find the ones that are right for you:
- The easiest, cheapest option is to not have "laundry day" so regularly. Unless you were sweating in the hot sun or rolling in the mud, you can probably wear those clothes more than once between wash/dry cycles. Why waste the time and money to clean clothes that aren't really dirty yet?
- Run a full load. Easy. Do it.
- Wash your clothes with cold water, not hot or warm. Most, if not all, detergents clean just as well in cold water...and it saves a lot of energy. You'll never know the difference, so this is an easy change. If you need more convincing on this, I recommend the video at the bottom of this post.
- Air dry your clothes as much as possible. If you have limited space (e.g. a dorm room), you may be able to selectively air-dry at least 1 load of laundry. What will dry quickly when hanging out? Usually athletic garments (e.g. synthetics like Under Armour and light cottons like gym shorts) do well. So when you wash all your stinky gym clothes together, hang them out to dry together! Don't waste the $$ on an unnecessary dryer cycle.
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/green-laundry/green-laundry-basics.html
