Laundry is one of the easiest areas to reduce energy costs in. Here's where the waste is:
- Water heating. A whopping 90% of the energy used by washing clothes often goes just to heat the water! So you can save a bundle just by changing the temperature setting. (~$150/year) I wash in cold almost exclusively.
- Top-loading washers. Top-loading washers use ridiculous amounts of water and energy. That's why other countries use front-loading washers instead, and I recommend them enthusiastically. I cover front-loaders in more detail below.
- Drying water-laden clothes. Most washing machines leave far too much water in the clothes, making the dryer run much longer. Front-loaders get more of the water out of your clothes. You can also use a Spin Dryer to extract water from your clothes before drying.
- Unnecessary drying. Dryers are unnecessary in the first place, since you can just hang your clothes up to dry. There's 100% energy savings to be realized here. (See more on dryers & dryer costs.)
Of course you can always run around the house naked, too. Then you'll have less clothes to wash.
If you wash in hot, then 90% of the energy is going just to heat the water.
You can save a bundle by just just lowering the temperature. You could also get a front-loading machine, which uses about 63% less water than a top-loader (and therefore spend less to heat the water.)
Check out how much energy is used depending on the temperature selected:
