Dry Your Clothes Twice as Fastby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 30 Aug 2007 08:46 AM I recently heard about this trick from a frugal reader and I am anxious to try it. She claims that making this easy improvement will make your dryer more efficient to the point where it can dry your laundry twice as fast as it would normally. Dryers are one of those energy hogs in the home. A dryer needs to generate a lot of heat and air to dry the laundry, and all of that heat requires a large amount of energy. A normal load of clothes to be dried can cost you somewhere between $.50 and $.76, depending on the type of fabric and the efficiency of your dryer. So, anything that can reduce that amount by half can really add up. How many loads of laundry a week do you do? I do about five or six large loads a week easily. You can see how the savings would add up to at least $100 a year. Of course, I should mention that hanging the laundry offers the biggest savings when it comes to drying your loads, but sometimes that just isn't practical to do. Here is our readers solution to making the dryer more efficient. He says that the standard accordian-type dryer vent is not very good at venting all of the moist air that needs to escape from the dryer. The accordion shape traps and restricts that air flow rather than helping it along. Our readers suggests that we install a rigid sheet metal vent to make the dryer twice as efficient. It won't work as hard, and it will use less energy. Dryer vent sections can be found at your local home improvement store. Just make sure you measure well, since it will be a lot easier for any cutting to be done at the store rather than at home. Mary Ann Romans also writes for the Computing Blog here at Families.com where she shares everything from the latest news on technology to cool downloads and fun websites. Related Articles: Save Money on Home Heating: Install a Dryer Diverter Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments prairieseed (10) 04 Sep 2007 06:32 PMThis is so true. We replaced an accordian vent hose with a rigid metal hose. I've been able to chop 10 - 20 minutes off the drying time per load, depending on the size of the load. My own preference is for hang drying, but when time is short, it helps to know these things. Thanks for such a cool blog! Jean  Mary Ann Romans (26886) 05 Sep 2007 09:47 AMJean, thanks for reading. Can you tell me about your clothesline, or your method of hang drying? I want to install a more permanent hanging solution, and I am confused about the options. Community Tags Dryer, frugal, laundry, saving money Discuss this article
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