Researchers from the University of Michigan are hoping their new study will inspire some Americans to rethink their relationship with laundry.
Researchers from the University of Michigan are hoping their new study will inspire some Americans to rethink their relationship with laundry. Because, no matter how you spin it, clothes dryers use a lot of comparatively costly energy when air works for free.
Household dryers in the U.S. consume about 3% of our residential energy budget, about six times that used by washing machines. Collectively, dryers cost more than $7 billion to power each year in this country, and generating that energy emits the equivalent of more than 27 million tons of carbon dioxide.
The U.S. also leads the world in dryer ownership, with more than 80% of homes having one, compared with less than 30% in South Korea, just over 40% in Germany and just under 60% in the United Kingdom.
That got researchers in the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, or SEAS, wondering what it would mean for the average American household if we warmed up to air drying.
Read more at University of Michigan
Photo Credit: wilhei via Pixabay
