photo: GreenOptions.com
Not too long ago my wife and I invited a professional energy auditor over to show us how to take care of some suspected energy waste in our home. (Hey, even the best of us need to be shown the right way to weather strip and insulate our homes!)
But our energy auditor showed us something very interesting. (I know . . . I would not dare imply that insulation is interesting.)
He took out the lint trap from our clothes dryer, it was free of lint and you could see through it. Then he placed it under a faucet and turned on the water--drops of water could barely find their way out of the mesh.
"What's up with that?" I asked with both amusement and confusion.
"You use dryer sheets for all your loads, don't you?" said the auditor.
He was right. When we use the dryer, we do (did) use dryer sheets. Some commercial somewhere had told us that we NEEDED dryer sheets in order stop that pesky static cling! Turns out, as far as household problems go, static cling really isn't one of them. But what's more, we learned that a clear film develops on the lint trap from using dryer sheets. As a result, the residue from dryer sheets restricts airflow through the dryer, forcing it to work harder and wasting energy and money!
So what's the solution? Simply don't use dryer sheets. We've done without them in my home (I know, I am going to have Snuggles after me for writing such a thing.) Or, scrub your lint trap with a wire brush under cold water every month to remove the weird film the dryer sheets left behind.
Bottom line: by not using dryer sheets we save energy on our dryer, not to mention the savings by simply not buying dryer sheets!
Of course, this is all for when you're unable to let Mother Nature dry your clothes for you.
Be sure to visit our SmartPower Blog to read more stories about being Energy Smart.
