[Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch

[John Salmen]

8 loads would be about 80-100 pairs of jeans - or about 40-60 sheets or
about 55 sq. metres (600 sq.ft) of the really thick bath towels. Definitely
something wrong with that scenario on a weekly basis. The average US person
generates 500 lbs of laundry per year (say 10 lbs a week)... average machine
is 10-15lbs per load

 

I would disagree and say that households are actually very predictable and
therefore that drying needs are not specific to a household but generic to a
culture. The generic need that you are talking about is convenience which is
more about culture and custom than rational - how many machines are running
right now with one pair of jeans.  This type of convenience is a north
American thing - like sewer infrastructures. If you really want to discuss
convenience for an urban person - a laundry service would provide 3 years of
clean laundry for the cost of a washer dryer combo (not even considering the
energy and soft costs). When I was urban the place down the street did my
laundry - I am in the country now so I hang it out to dry. I think this is
what most of the rest of the world does. I had a friend in univ from Saudi
who grew up in a basic middle class modern way for the times but they had a
maid that would take the laundry out and wash it on the rocks in a nearby
river.

 

 

 

 

From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of John
Straube
Sent: July-22-12 6:24 PM
To: Reuben Deumling
Cc: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch

 

Interesting! Our firm often gets to do forensic investigations of homes
which dry clothes (or firewood is another common one) inside during cool
weather.

I live in a climate that gets below 30F for months. And I have a very energy
efficient house with triple glazed fiberglass windows.  Drying clothes on a
rack is possible, but results in condensation streaming from the windows.
But I can run a 200 cfm exhaust fan during drying but this costs lots of
energy too.  I grew up in a very leaky energy inefficient house.  We dried
clothes inside, although in winter it was often annoying enough that my Mom
would drive into town to use the laundromat.

The solutions for clothes drying are specific to household makeup, lifestyle
patterns, house design etc.  Simply saying that any solution that involves a
clothes drier is bad may be the moral high ground but is unlikely to
convince a lot of people not on this list (and quite a few on this list
apparently).  It works for some people, and sure could work for more than it
does, but ignoring the 8 loads per week households (both my sisters do more
than this), and ignoring the inconveniences to people in some households is
not a solution.



Dr John Straube, P.Eng. 
www.BuildingScience.com


On 12-07-22 7:22 PM, Reuben Deumling wrote: 

 

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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