Nature’s Clothes Dryer


January 24th, 2014

Unlike dishwashers that are more energy efficient than hand washing when used full, until recently there is no such thing as an EnergyStar clothes dryer and the ratings agency is not really enthusiastic about them. Electric clothes dryers account for 10-15% of our home energy usage. If you have sunny weather, outdoors is the place; in dry climates dry time can be as short as 1/2 hour.  In less dry and warm places, be creative around your house, the drying clothes can actually put some moisture back into a home being heated with forced air heating.

Americans seem much more enamored of the electric dryers than Europeans who often don’t use them due to space constraints. Those that do use them do so sparingly because of higher energy costs.

While you can find many fine clothes drying rack choices at Ikea, Target, Lowes’s, Ace Hardware you’ll have many more uniques choices if you go online. Do a search on “clothes drying rack” (aka clothes horse) and click on the images for an amazing array of choices, especially those space efficient models that those around the globe have developed over the years.

Here are some that I found intriguing at  Bright Green Ideas

While I won’t be giving up my dryer, there certain categories of laundry that I air dry regularly with a combination of hangers (shirts) and racks. Since time is a constraint I am blessed that I usually don’t need to bother with pins (pegs) and that my drying areas (racks on upper balcony, hangers in nearby bathroom, wire shelving near washer/dryer for lingerie). Like all parts of our homes, I am constantly tweaking for a more efficient combination of lines, racks and spaces for our home.

Going Solar: How going off-grid can and can’t help


February 13th, 2012

We installed solar electric in July 2007 in Northern California. When you install solar in PG&E territory you change from a residential customer to a commercial producer and receive a monthly accounting. As days become shorter and colder we use more electricity and we’re starting to eat into our summer surplus. Next July will tell if we properly projected our usage and size of our system. Real Goods Solar  (then operating as Marin Solar) did our installation and we are extraordinarily pleased with their service and work. We used Sunpower panels which, at the time, were the most efficient panels available.

Being an accountant, a cost-benefit analysis was a must. Being house rich and cash poor we took out a HELOC loan to pay for the system but our monthly payments are equal to our previous average electric bill. The previous 3 years electric bills increased annually an average of 12% so, just keeping the monthly payment the same  for the next 20 years will protect us from energy inflation.

Many of the Federal & State tax credits which allowed us an affordable system are no longer be offered but at least one utility CEO has gone on record as projecting that your own solar will be cheaper than the grid between 2014 and 2016 due to decreasing PV costs

I’ve been considering a solar battery charger to keep those pesky batteries on cell phones, iPods & cameras on ready call. Some research though is making me reconsider. The jury is still out on this decision.

Update, July 2011: PG&E, calculated our year-end discrepancy and we owed the equivalent of one to 1-1/2 month’s bill to them at year-end. This is mainly because much of the family decided that “since we have solar, it doesn’t matter how much electricity we use” – NOT! All being said, I think we calculated our optimal usage and number of panels appropriately. As the children move out of the house we should be able to run a surplus and sell back to PG&E under California Public Utilities Commission ruling on Net Energy Metering (NEM) .

We’re looking into solar thermal (hot water).  I understand it, there is great variation on recommended systems depending on what part of the country that you live in so read this \”Homeowners Perspective\”, based in the San Francisco Bay area, with that in mind. Search out solar hot water information based in your local area for the best info for you.