Saving the world one appliance at a time

Alright, it's that time. Cycling stuff is slow and I have way to much time on my hands. Ok not really but it's long over due after the great refrigerator roundup scam I thought I would tell you where you can save power the proper way. Your dirty underwear is the problem. Laundry has been the biggest power sucker and water user from the get go.

Yes your fridge runs all the time but it's only running on 110 volts and the power draw is low in comparison to what your dryer is doing. So we can start here. Dryer are never going to to be energy efficient, sorry to ruin it for some. Options, put up a clothes line or a drying rack. This is not an option for some and it does slow down business for me. The biggest way to make sure your dryer is working the best it possibly can is to check your venting. First off if it's plastic, change it. It's flammable to start but also the bends, wrinkles etc slow down airflow. The shorter the venting the better and with the least amount of bends.

Most dryers are designed to have 2x 90 degree bends and a max of 8 foot run. Make sure it's aluminium and preferably the solid pipe. As much as you may think that dryers work by heating your clothes with the element, they actually work by air flow. The pull heat through your clothing so any restriction in the venting will slow this down. If you find lots of lint in your trap, guaranteed that you have venting problems. It's supposed to blow outside. Use things link the auto dry function, this shuts off the unit once the clothes are dry. Pretty basic. Alright that's the simple thing.

The better way to save power and the world, front load washers. More laundry, less water, less power. Now before you toss your washer out to the curb, remember if it's not broken don't throw out what you have. That's just adding to the problem. So the big differences, first off the water consumption, top loaders are 17 gallons of water per fill up versus roughly 5 in a front loader. Now in a renewable environmental thought don't you think that water is a little more important than electricity? Gotta have clean water to put in plastic bottles.

Now if you are due for a new washer this is a very important thought. Don't buy the biggest machine out there. More than likely it's way to big and you will never ever use it to it's potential and it will more than likely cause you more problems than benefits. These machines are meant to be packed full, small loads will cause the machine to do weird things. Think of a car wheel with snow in it. Snow in one side will cause the car to shake violently and if continued it would eventually break something. Well same thought with a washing machine. Have snow all the way around the wheel and it balances out. Full load. The machine will sense all this and may not spin properly. SO if you have a front loader currently, beat the crap out of it, you can't overload it!!!

When used properly and loaded properly clothes will almost come out dry after the spin cycling saving you power, where else at the dryer. Of course trying to show people how much clothing you can put in one of the machines is always interesting, guideline, if you can still put your hand inside the machine when you think it's full, there is still room for more. What does this mean to you, less loads of laundry equals more time to ride.

Now a simple comparison, your fridge is always plugged in but not always running, if loaded properly it runs maybe 60 percent of the time of a 24 hour time period. That means Hydro-1 is only making money off you 60 percent of the time. Now your washer is used probably once or twice a day where both your water company is now tracking your use along with Hydro-1. A top load washer uses a 110v motor which will almost suck up as much power in one load as your fridge does all day. Front loaders are DC motors and will cut that power in almost half and the fact that you are almost doing twice as much laundry in one load than with a top loader saves huge. The water consumption is dramatically lower. Now add in the dryer time, if it's a top loader the clothing is not comping out all that dry. Put that in the dryer and you have 220 volts and huge amps being pulled through for a good hour. That dryer will use more power in that one load than any fridge will for a good full week. HMMM wonder why they promote you to through out the fridge?? Obviously with the front loader spinning 2 to 3 times faster in the final spin means the clothes come out almost dry and this equals less dryer time meaning less expense to you. This is where they should be promoting the savings, not your refrigerator.

As for options on units, I don't even want to get started into some of the useless things that they are putting on them but hey like cars the more toys on them the more things to break. Keeps me very busy. Well it's time for work. Any specific questions on appliances feel free to email me. I promise to get back into the cycling tomorrow. That's only if the 4 Hydro-1 trucks that just pulled in my driveway are only lost and not coming to get me. Are those baseball bats???