10 Energy- and Water-Saving Laundry Tips

Make doing the laundry a green event by saving energy and water

Laundry day doesn’t have to be the same old routine. Switch things up by dropping wasteful energy and water consuming habits and bringing in the green, energy and water saving tips. Here are some simple things you can do to make the transition.

Washing

• Fill the washing machine to capacity whenever possible. Washing a full load will save more energy and water than washing several smaller loads.

• Use energy saving features on your washing machine. Switch the setting to accommodate lightly or heavily soiled clothing.  Sort your lightly soiled clothing from your heavily soiled ones. For lightly soiled clothing, use the sud-saving feature if it’s available on your washing machine. This feature saves any wastewater for use on the next load. Use this feature only if you’ll be washing the second load straight away.

• Use lower temperature settings. Hot water requires more energy to be heated. Try using warm or cold water instead. Some detergents are perfect for cold water use, so the next time you shop for detergent, look for those that work best in warm to cold temperatures. Pre-soaking heavily soiled clothing may also help when washing with lower temperatures.

• Reduce the temperature on your thermostat. Adjusting the thermostat temperature to an adequate 120 F helps you save energy as well as protect your little ones from possible scalding.

Drying

• Sort all lightweight and heavyweight clothing and dry two loads in a row. Lightweight clothing takes less time to dry and uses less energy. When the lightweight items dry, the dryer will be warm enough to dry the heavyweight clothing without using more energy than necessary to reheat the dryer. Air-dry clothing whenever possible.

• Time your washing and drying. If you time your loads so that the next load follows right after the last one, the dryer will be hot and would not use additional electricity or gas to heat up.

• Use energy saving features. Settings such as auto-dry avoids wasting energy and prevents over drying, which may cause static, shrinkage, and even shorten the life of clothing.

• Avoid over drying clothes. Remove clothing from the dryer when still lightly damp to reduce wrinkling and the need for ironing—another energy guzzler.

• Avoid adding wet clothing to a partially dry load. Your dryer saps more energy when it takes longer to dry newly added damper clothing.

• Clean dryer filter after every load. A lint-free filter creates better airflow and shortens drying time.

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10 Energy- and Water-Saving Laundry Tips

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