[daemin]

> Many (most?) households don't have clothes dryers, using clotheslines instead.

Why bother having a clothes dryer when for most of the year you can hang them up in the shade and they will be dry within the hour. There are only a couple of states/regions where it makes sense to use a clothes dryer. The blue mountains and I imagine Tasmania where it gets too cold to hang your clothes up in the winter.

> I would like to see how much energy the average Australian household consumes.

From memory for just myself in a small apartment I used around 9-12 kWh / day. That is rarely using the A/C but having at least one PC running 24/7.

[falsedan]

> The blue mountains and I imagine Tasmania where it gets too cold to hang your clothes up in the winter.

Clothes get dry regardless of the temperature: if it's cold enough, the water will freeze and then the ice sublimates into the lower-humidity atmosphere.

[hutzlibu]

Regardless of the cold... but not of the air humidity. Which is ehat he meant with cold I suppose. (colder means usually more humidity)

[cromulent]

Depends on the humidity, not just the temperature. I remember hanging my clothes up to dry whilst in Darwin, and they took literally days to get somewhat close to dry.

[falsedan]

Exactly my point: the temperature in the top end is not cold, and clothes take ages to dry.

[cromulent]

No, orthogonal to your point :)

The temperature was only around 23c. In the same temperature in Melbourne, they dry in an hour or two.

[falsedan]

No, same as my point: clothes will dry at any temperature, if the humidity is low enough.

[daemin]

Yes, but there are differences between taking hours to dry on a clothesline, taking an hour to dry in a dryer, and taking less than an hour drying in a clothesline (in the shade even).