[Nition]

I've noticed that Americans seem to tumble dry everything. Here in New Zealand anyone with enough yard space for a washing line generally air drys their clothes unless it's rainy. In fact most of my clothes have Do Not Tumble Dry on the label, although that message is often a bit overzealous and can certainly be selectively ignored.

[bobthepanda]

A lot of developments in America these days specifically ban clothesline drying because it's associated with, well, being poor. Never underestimate the zealousness of American HOAs, condo boards, and landlords in wanting to keep up appearances.

[JoshMnem]

Electric dryers are also a huge environmental burden due to electricity consumption. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think electric dryers require many power plants worth of electricity. In many parts of the world, air drying is normal.

If anyone is looking for ideas on how to make the world a better place, look into figuring out how to shift the culture so that air drying becomes more common. Also composting toilets.

Edit: Drying clothes uses 56 billion kWh of energy in the US.[1] Another related area that needs work is standby power.[2]

[1] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=96&t=3

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/science/just-how-much-pow...

[hinkley]

Which is why HE washers spin so damned fast. It’s cheaper to centrifuge off a bit more water than to heat it out of the clothes.

[Retric]

US uses 3000+ billion kWh of electricity so dryers are meaningful but not that huge of an impact. I think there are better areas to focus such a campaign.

[JoshMnem]

It's something though, and the rest of the world is following the US in many ways. As electric dryers increase with the population and development in places like Asia and Africa, the numbers will increase.

[Retric]

Sure, it would be a net gain. I am just saying replacing 2% of fossil fuel production with wind/solar seems a lot easier than getting 300+ million people to do something else to save under 2% of electricity usage.

Socially, improving commuting infrastructure so people waste less gas would easily have a larger benefit and you are not going to fight nearly as hard.

Etc etc, this might be top 50 but it's not a top 10 and it's hard.

[always_good]

The win would be in mindset shift. How are 300+ million going to care about dryers but not all the other growing ways to be enviro-conscious like avoiding the stack of plastic packaging you get from ordering food delivery?

People waste so much energy without thinking about it and for reasons that aren't particularly more convenient, like using disposable dishware instead of just rinsing off your plate when you're done. I look around at my peers even here in Mexico and see a shift, like asking for no straw when ordering a michelada.

So focusing on the specific energy usage of dryers begins to sound near-sighted. Nobody suggested that dryers alone cause all waste.

[asfdsfggtfd]

The trick is to do both. Then you have addressed nearly 5% (rounding up a bit) of the US's fossil fuel dependence...

[Retric]

You can easily do in door clothes drying in most areas especially if you're single. Combine with a 70+C wash cycle and cloths should be fairly close to sterile when you start.