Sometimes in life, if you try to dress up something that just isn’t “all that,” you end up fooling nobody. So this week’s tip — straighten and clean the air ducts on your dryer — isn’t going to get sexified. Maybe straightening and cleaning your air ducts seems like a hassle, but sometimes small, inconvenient steps can have a measurable impact. This is one of those times.

You should clean your clothes dryer ducts twice a year. The dryer is one of the most energy-intensive appliances in your house, and clogged ducts cause it to work even harder. You’ll need some specialized equipment for this one:

Start by removing the ducting from the rear of your dryer and from the wall vent.
Take the ducting outside to safe area. Make sure you have safety glasses on.
Insert the nozzle of a pressure washer into the ducting. Hold on to the ducting with one hand and deliver a few short bursts of water. If you don’t have a pressure washer you can get most of the way there with a shop style wet/dry vacuum cleaner.
Let dry and reinstall.

This project, along with cleaning out the lint on in your dryer’s filter, will help you save at least $3/month. In addition, you will be saving roughly 200 lbs of carbon. So clean your air filter, have a Happy Thanksgiving and we’ll be back with more tips next week.

Last week 69 people pledged to regulate their home temperature by adjusting or installing a thermostat (Tip #19). At about 4,113 lbs of CO2 per pledge, we can anticipate a reduction of roughly 283,728 pounds of CO2.