Save Money on Your Clothes Dryer

June 6th, 2010 by saving money expert

The most obvious way to save money on your clothes dryer (and therefore your electricity bill) is to hang your washing on the line.

But what if you can’t do that? It could be due to bad weather, or simply because you don’t have a clothes line because of lack of space in your yard.

I have a bigger than average family (for Australia) – there are six of us living in the same house – and three of those six are children under ten. Yep, makes for a lot of washing.

Unfortunately, that means I also have a lot of washing to dry. In the summer time, it’s not so bad. But in the winter, my electricity bill is expensive – very expensive (often $600 or more per quarter) – so I am always on the lookout for ways to save money on my account.

Are you old enough to remember back to when we had cabinet dryers? It definitely ages me, but I remember them vividly. There was a rod at the top, much like a wardrobe, and you hung your wet clothes in the totally enclosed cabinet.

Worked brilliantly, but it was an expensive exercise.

What if you could get the same effect, without the exorbitant cost?

For several years now I’ve done something similar, without it costing me a cent.

Clothes Horse

Our house has ducted heating, so I use stand-alone clothes airers (clothes horse) to dry the clothes.

I ensure every item is laid out flat on the bars so all parts of the clothes are dried evenly. Once the airer is full, I layer towels over and around the rack, making sure they overlap so there are no gaps. The airer is then placed over the heating ducts.

This basically sets it up like a tent, keeping the heat inside the airer, and drying the clothes quickly.

If you don’t want to use towels, it also works with sheets and doona covers. When I don’t have these items available wet, I use dry ones.

This process is extremely effective, and dries the clothes overnight in most cases.

If you have several ducts available, there’s no reason you can’t have multiple ‘tents’ working at the same time. I have two, and most of the time they’re both in use.

I hope this simple tip helps you to save heaps of money on your electricity bill!