[Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch

[John Salmen]

Good point on size of household - people don't often keep in mind how short
the time frame on various life models is.  Breeders may by a house or set up
an apartment (with appliances) and start a family but the likelihood of that
arrangement (location, partner, etc.) lasting more than 5 years is slim. For
the ones that do there are spikes over 15-20 years in which appliances
actually get used to the capacity they are designed for (as well as house
size). 

 

I've enjoyed the same house, same partner and same family for 2 decades and
the only real appliance concession during that time was plumbing in an extra
hot water tank during puberty and the installation of a dual flush toilet -
I desperately wanted to increase the house size for a while but fortunately
didn't. The fridge was too small for a while but now with one off to
university is just right. I now insist on fridge drawers for clients that
can afford them as they are more adaptable and just better design.

 

I do recommend dishwashers (if you can find one that actually works - and
that changes), they are not well designed for the purpose but they are a
decent storage area in a kitchen and probably save in therapy costs for your
children and tend to make heterosexual relationships work a little better.

 

From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Reuben
Deumling
Sent: July-22-12 4:22 PM
To: jfstraube at gmail.com; Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch

 

 

On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 3:08 PM, John Straube <jfstraube at gmail.com> wrote:


It is odd to have a discussion on payback when others are saying we should
not even consider using clothes driers as it is always dry and sunny outside
when they do their laundry!


I live in a climate with rather little sun and high humidity. We dry our
clothes inside on a rack most of the year. 

As for payback, the risk here is to assume the 8 loads/week rates as a
reasonable figure, because at those rates it will be easier to imagine
paying these machines back. But if you have one load every two weeks, then I
suspect you'd never see a payback. And for that matter if you compare the
heat pump dryer to the clothesline it would be even more difficult to pay
back the extra cost.  The majority of US households (and it isn't
dramatically different in other industrial nations) are one- and two-person
affairs. If we're talking anywhere near 8 loads/week for those households we
have bigger issues to worry about.

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