Using Passive Solar Energy to Dry Laundry

This spring, take advantage of free solar energy to dry your clothes. Installing a clothesline in your yard can save you a substantial amount of money over the course of a year, and leaves your clothes smelling fresh and clean!

Your electric dryer is the second most energy-hogging appliance in your home, next only to the refrigerator. Electric dryers use up to 10% of residential energy, and by hanging laundry on a clothesline to dry, the average family can save up to $85 a year in electricity costs. Families who own gas dryers can save up to $130 on their utility bills. Using natural solar energy to dry your laundry is a simple way to reduce energy use and reduce the amount of pollution you create.

Some people hang out laundry to save energy, but many people dry their clothing this way just because they enjoy it! Laundry flapping in the breeze is a nostalgic reminder of times before automatic dryers. I remember my grandmother hanging out her family's laundry; sheets billowing like sails in the breeze, shirt sleeves waving hello at us, giggling at grandpa's red union suits, and the fresh, clean scent that is better than any artificially scented dryer sheet can offer.

Hanging laundry gets you outside in the fresh air, and gives you some exercise. Lifting the weight of a basket of freshly washed clothes, bending and stretching as you pin the clothing onto the line, can help keep you toned and trim. Couldn't most of us use a little more fresh air and exercise anyway?

Unfortunately some communities have banned clotheslines, or may only allow them to be strung behind a fence where it can't be seen by the neighbors. Since we've become so dependent on automatic dryers, there seems to be a stigma attached to hanging your clothing in view of the world. Some people may associate clotheslines with tenements or "poor folk," or just may not find it aesthetically pleasing to see their neighbors' unmentionables twisting in the breeze. It's a strange sort of prudishness when we don't care to see our neighbor lady's fancy bras hanging on a line, while pop culture media display female figures who sport lingerie as outerwear.

Community covenants, landlord restrictions, and zoning laws may prevent you from hanging your laundry outside. One group, Project Laundry List, encourages the use of passive solar energy to dry laundry, and supports "Right To Dry" legislation that will protect homeowner's rights to hang laundry in the sunlight and fresh air. The site also lists many communities and homeowners' associations than ban clotheslines. If your community isn't listed, but has a ban on clotheslines, you can add them to the database. You may also wish to join Project Laundry Lists' "Stop the Ban" campaign to work with other activists to bring about changes in local policy.