I Reduced my Electric Bill

Last fall, I stopped using my dryer almost completely.  Before this, I had hung out clothes when it was nice outside.  But, I wasn’t very faithful with my clothespins.  Now, about the only time I use my dryer is when I wash the sheets and it is raining and I can’t hang them outside.

I have a big clothesline outside.  I also have a clothesline and a drying rack in the basement.  I also hang clothes up on plastic hangers and hang them from the ceiling in the basement.  I have found that if I wash an average of 2 loads per day, I can keep up with the laundry and have enough room to hang up everything.  The clothes in the basement dry overnight.  We do school in the basement, so it is actually nice that I can fold the clothes as I am able in between helping the kids instead of having to do it as soon as the dryer buzzes so they don’t get wrinkles.

It seemed like we were saving on our electric bill, but I thought I’d graph it so we could see exactly how much savings we have had.

December and January here were very cold this year.  We have a heat pump and we had to run the emergency heater many days this winter.  Last winter we only ran it a day or two.  That accounts for the two winter months.  The other months clearly show a savings for us.  I’d hate to think how high our bills would have been in December and January if we had been running the dryer!

What do you do to save on your electric bill?