Today's challenge is up:
Only use your washing machine when you have a full load, and run it on cold whenever possible. Run at maximum spin to reduce drying time and avoid using a tumble drier. A typical washing machine uses 90% of its energy to heat the water. Generally, cold water gets your clothes just as clean and saves about 2 pounds of CO2 per load.
Until tomorrow ...
WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!
I started doing this a few years ago, and our clothes are just as clean. A couple things I found -and these are specific to your machines. 1) We realized recently that the temp control on our washing machine wasn't working all the time. So when I thought I was using cold water I wasn't ALL the time. The sensor must have broken. SO now I use another setting that bypasses that sensor and just takes water from the cold tap. 2) Similar think happened with our dryer a while ago. My mom noticed that even though I was using the sensor to dry our clothes, the dryer was running WAY too long. I experimented with the timed drying and can dry most of our full loads in 30 mins. Its an electric dryer.
ReplyDeleteI've been washing in cold exclusively and it works great - all of the good detergents (sometimes they refer to 'high efficiency') are made for cold water, folks should know. On the spin cycle, I've noticed that mine doesn't differ from medium to high. My big thing is I always dry on low heat and it does just fine - only time I have to do it on a warmer setting is if I have a ton of jeans - which is rare :)
ReplyDeleteI wash everything in cold water (except diapers - I have to soak those in hot but am open to anyone with suggestions on how to get them clean in cold).
ReplyDeleteClothes turn out just as clean when I wash them in cold water.
I'm looking forward to summertime when I can use my clothesline and avoid using the dryer a bit.
Oh - of course I thought of this after I had entered my first comment, but -- I will soon be experimenting with wool dryer balls - I have heard they can really cut down on dryer time as much as a third!
ReplyDeleteAny wool dryer ball users out there who have noticed it helped cut the drying time?
I try to sun dry as much as I can. But our humidity is very high, our laundry don't dry properly. I spin them for 15 minutes.
ReplyDeleteand our winter, it rains everyday.
I learn that I shouldn't spin dry the fitted sheets. If you do, the elastic becomes useless. So I never spin dry this.