[Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch

[jfstraube1 at bell.blackberry.net]

Sounds like a classic "the perfect is the enemy of the good"
Eg Since hanging clothes outside to dry is perfect all efficient clothes driers are bad and should not be encouraged. 

When and if (big if) outside forces make the 90 million driers "non viable" we won't have to tell people to somehow dry their clothes outside. On the other hand, while we wait for this Armageddon to come,  having efficient clothes driers (like the Danes and Japanese) that use 1/4 as much energy per load would be better than not having these. 
Seems to me people survived $4 gas, and folks in Europe live well with $8 gas, so there may be a bit of life left in the system that makes people want the convenience of clothes driers. 
I am not an apologist for the fuels we burn and how many we do, but I am a realist about what makes a substantive difference. Increased standards for appliances (which start with Energy Star) have saved a huge amount in the last 20 years or so. 


Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>
Sender: "greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org"
	<greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 16:38:46 
To: Green Building<greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Reply-To: Green Building <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch



On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 5:36 AM, Paul Eldridge <paul.eldridge at ns.sympatico.ca<mailto:paul.eldridge at ns.sympatico.ca>> wrote:

There are roughly 90 million tumble dryers in the United States alone and no matter how much we collectively hold our breath and stomp our feet (or pontificate), they're not going to magically disappear.

This is the kind of argument I hear in discussions of when cars may no longer be ubiquitous. Invariably someone will say 'You're trying to take my car away!'  These kinds of statements betray an understandable anxiety about the kinds of changes that might be afoot, but also a misunderstanding of who's in charge. I'm not trying to take anyone's car or clothes dryer away. Personalizing this is absurd. The people who argue that we can't afford clothes dryers powered by fossil fuel or the grid, or that cars have no future aren't saying this because they want to ruin other people's fun or convenience. I believe we say this because it is our best guess as to what will come to pass, whether we want it or not. Pretending that this doesn't concern us, that consumers rule, that we're somehow exempt from all the limits others take seriously is ridiculous.  In the US we have gotten used to thinking we're in charge, that if we want clothes dryers well then we're damn well going to get (to keep our) clothes dryers. But what if one day we discover that we no longer call the shots, hold all the cards?
Dryers aren't going to 'magically disappear,' but they might cease to be viable. Public opinion I think could easily shift when we realize the absurdity of thinking we need power plants and a complex grid and ancient sunlight to accomplish a task as simple as drying our clothes.

According to Natural Resources Canada, electric dryers sold in 2008 consume, on average, 916 kWh a year.  That number is based on eight loads a week, which works out to be some 2.2 kWh per use. As a two person household, we typically run two loads of laundry a week -- 229 kWh/year.  A TV set-top box (and there are reportedly 160 million of them in US households) or digital video recorder could consume upwards of twice that over the course of the year. Where are the pitchforks and torches?

The whole thing is ridiculous. Just because we keep thinking of new ways to use electricity doesn't mean older ways aren't discretionary, aren't something we can un-learn.

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