» Ninety percent of operating your washing machine comes from the hot water it uses... As you can see from the accompanying chart, the lower the water heater setting, the more economical the wash. Locate your washer as close as possible to your water heater to minimize heat loss through the pipes. And make sure the pipes leading from your tank to your washing machine are wrapped with insulation.

Water Heater Thermostat Set At 140�F

Water Heater Thermostat Set At 120�F

» Don't wash partial loads...
Wait until you can fill the machine - unless it has a "small load" attachment.

» Always presoak badly soiled clothes,
or use the soak cycle to avoid having to run a wash twice.

» Clothes can be cleaned successfully in warm water rather than hot water...
and can be rinsed well in cold water. You'll save half the demand on the water heater with these easy steps.

» Someone's doing a mighty lot of clothes drying every day...
during the heat of the day, with a dryer located in an air conditioned utility room, vented to the outdoors. A clothes dryer has a powerful fan that whips air (house air in the case above) past the damp clothes at the rate of 150 to 200 cubic feet per minute (cfm). In a 1,500 square foot house with eight foot ceilings, a 200 cfm dryer can empty one houseload of air every 60 minutes of operation. In summer, that's a lot of expensively cooled house air being heated by the dryer and blown out. Just as bad, that's a lot of lost house air that must be replaced by hot, damp outside air leaking in fast wherever it can: Through kitchen and bathroom vents, fireplace vents and dampers, around windows and doors, through recessed ceiling light fixtures, through electric plug and lightswitch plates, etc. For all the above reasons, it's best to locate the dryer in an uncooled utility room or garage.

» The clothes dryer vents lint onto the air conditioner's outdoor condenser coils...
The system, hampered in its ability to release heat, runs longer and longer.

» The dryer vent itself is clogged with lint...
and it takes longer and longer to dry a load of clothes. With the vent clogged, the clothes get a hot, damp tumbling, but little moisture is removed.

» Dry heavy and lightweight laundry separately...
if there's enough wash to two loads. Light clothes dry faster and use less energy. They may even dry with the residual heat left from the first load.