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If you have been complaining about your increased utility bill and you are looking for a way to lower it, then you should consider using an outdoor clothes dryer. Drying your clothes outside may feel like stepping back in time but you will reap plenty of benefits in the end.
Besides being able to save up a bit on your monthly utility bill, you are also doing your share in energy conservation. Clothes dryers eats up a huge percentage of your energy bill. In fact, an electric clothes dryer can account for one third of your electric bill. Electic dryers that are used in many residential homes nowadays consume power to provide heat just to get the drum working and that doesn't take into account the actual time drying your clothes. When turned on and fully working, electric clothes dryer uses up four to six kilowatts of energy. When you use a dryer every day, you are not only wasting energy but also wasting your hard earned money.
An outdoor clothes dryer seems to be a smart solution to these problems. If you have tried drying your clothes naturally outside, you will see a big difference between electrically dried and naturally dried. Clothes dried outside carry a fresher smell. The scent from detergents and bleach is also not as strong in clothes that are dried naturally.
For white clothes, you don't have to soak them in bleach when using an outdoor dryer since the sun's rays help maintain their light color. Plus, sunlight is also an effective natural sanitizer. It kills the germs that cling to your clothes.
Fabrics that are dried on an outdoor clothes dryer also seem to be stiffer compared to clothes that are fresh out of an electric clothes dryer. If you don't like your clothes, or towel, or sheets to be stiff, then there's a simple solution to that. Put your item of clothing or articles that you don't like stiff into your electric dryer right after sun drying them. set your dryer into the on the air only cycle for at least five minutes so you don't use the heat cycle and run up your electric bill. This should do the trick and will ease up some of the stiffness of your clothes. But if you like stiffer clothing then you can save on ironing and using any starch.
If you decide to go with an outdoor clothes dryer you may want to look into getting an indoor drying rack for drying clothes indoors so whenyou get a stretch of bad weather and you need to have some clean clothes you can get it done. It may take longer and your will not get the full effect of an outdoor clothes dryer but you can save it for another day.
