Let me get this straight ... I wash my clothes at night and hang them out to dry in the dark? Or leave them sitting overnight to begin to mildew until I can hang them out in daylight?

I'll wash in cold water and hang out during the daytime, thank you. And I'll turn my AC off during the night when it it's cool, open my up my windows, and cool the house down enough so that I don't have to run the AC for most, if not all, of the day.

I've been a fan of the clothesline forever - outside when it's warm/dry enough, and I have lines in my basement. Thanks to my dear little mother, I learned how to hang clothes properly (I cringe when I see shirts clipped by the shoulders - do you really want to wear that with bumps sticking up!)
and I can avoid ironing altogether, another energy savings.
My father sold appliances for a living, and even though we had a dryer, we rarely used it, as he knew that it was one of the biggest factors in wearing out your clothes prematurely - the heat destroys color, elasticity, etc. If you must use it, put your clothes in for only a few minutes (especially if they've been sitting in the washer for awhile) and then hang them up.
Smooth out your clothes, clip shirts upside down (or use a hanger), hang pants by the bottoms of the legs - a few extra minutes, and it'll make all the difference!
One caveat on washing in cold water - many detergents aren't effective without at least a bit of warm water - make sure what you're using will do the job - and if you're still using powders
(find the environmentally-friendly kind), dissolve them thoroughly before you run the load.

Am I the only one who doesn't use an Air Conditioner? I really think, for those of us who live in the North East, that A/C is a complete waste of energy. We only have a few months of warm air...enjoy it!

I don't use A/C - but I have recently moved and they do - I am a fan of fans...and the A/C in this house works too hard and no cooler than if the windows were open.
I am campaigning for a clothesline. I haven't convinced them of it - but I will hang my clothes to the best of my ability - wash and hang during the day. The dryer is a HUGE waste of energy, day or night, I feel - especially when we have tons of sun. I use Biokleen detergent - super super concentrated or Seventh Generation...less packaging AND gentle on clothes and the Earth.
For some years now the power company in our state has offered cheaper rates to people who do the bulk of their housekeeping during off-peak hours. It is great and comes with a bit of a higher cost for peak hours usage...they are also going to install updated meters that folks can monitor themselves for their usage.
Blessings

I agree with Girlonbike. There doesn't seem to be a good way of washing clothes at night (at least while sleeping). Many washers don't have a delay start, also is there a way to delay adding the detergent? (if you add it to the detergent dispenser, which is on the top of front loaders, over a few hours will the detergent trickle down onto the clothes before there is any water added, and is this a problem?) My state does not offer any incentives to use electricity at night. :-(

I take advantage of cheaper rates and wash, always on cold, at night and dry in the morning before the higher rates kick in. Or vise versa. My clothes never smell like mildew unless I wait another day to dry. I hang my towels and sheets out to dry. A lot of times I will wait and wash a couple of loads and put both loads in the dryer at the same time. My dryer is big. The weekend is when this works best because the lower rates are in effect all day Saturday and Sunday.
I run more risk of clothes in our dirty clothes closet mildewing than I do of stuff that has to sit in the washing machine all night. We are a family of five.
I also make sure to run the washing machine at night too, alternately from the wash or dryer of course.

I take advantage of cheaper rates and wash, always on cold, at night and dry in the morning before the higher rates kick in. Or vise versa. My clothes never smell like mildew unless I wait another day to dry. I hang my towels and sheets out to dry. A lot of times I will wait and wash a couple of loads and put both loads in the dryer at the same time. My dryer is big. The weekend is when this works best because the lower rates are in effect all day Saturday and Sunday.
I run more risk of clothes in our dirty clothes closet mildewing than I do of stuff that has to sit in the washing machine all night. We are a family of five.
I also make sure to run the dishwasher at night too, alternately from the wash or dryer of course.

@ Girlonbike and Eric Schauberger--

I have been washing clothes at night and drying them by clothesline the following morning for 8 years and I have never had anything mildew in that time. I live in San Francisco where it is quite humid--in fact I often have to wait until the following *afternoon* to hang the clothes out because there is too much fog--and still no mildew.

Maybe if you live in the deep South this is a concern, but I think for most of the country that time lag between washing and drying is perfectly safe from mildew.

If you're really concerned, you can probably put the clothes in to wash when you first get up in the morning, as demand on the power grid is less at 6:30 am than at 9 am, and then you can hang them out to dry immediately after the cycle finishes.

You'll have to excuse me now, since I have to go hang out clothes I washed last night.

"I also make sure to run the WASHING MACHINE at night too, alternately from the wash or dryer of course."
oops.
I also make sure to run the DISHWASHER at night too, alternately from the wash or dryer of course.

Please excuse my double post. I have a run away curser which is driving me crazy.
I live in Asheville, NC and as I said have no problems with the mildew. It has been hot here, but rather nice during the night.

I live in the Deep South and I wash at night and hang in the morning. We have never had a mildew problem. I have also hung at night during the summer (8pm) and the clothes were dry in the morning, with nary a problem. We use Seventh Generation liquid and have great results washing in cold. We also wash our dishes at night while we sleep. Mississippi offers no breaks or incentives for off-peak usage, but it keeps the house cooler. We set out A/C at 80 and just run ceiling fans 24 hours. Our A/C only kicks on during the days when it gets to 100+ outside.

I live in Eastern Virginia - on the coast...humid all the time and mildew is a problem if clothes are left to mildew - I have had to tackle it a time or 2 but not under the clothesline circumstances...happens more if I don't take clothes out of washer right away.

I have to say the off-peak budget plan here is virtually unknown - and I wish I could get this house full of young'uns to sign up for it. They don't seem to see the need.

Is the time of day metering called "net metering".
It would seem in the utilities interest to swap out our old "record one number" spinning wheel meter with "net-metering" or "Time-of-day-metering" as that will not only alleviate their peak hour generation load but presumably the new meters can report back our usage to the utility without a meter reader having to drive to your house.
Am I right? Why have utilities *not* been falling over themselves trying to replace our old meters?

Fortunately both my dishwasher and washer have delayed start capability (up to only 6 hours only which seems an annoyingly arbitrary limit) so smug git here has wet cloths moldering for only a couple of hours ever.

May I encourage those who never use a cloths line because of the agony of pegging 50 socks to consider this: wash smalls together and tumble dry them.
That's fine by me... IF you wash big items; shirts, jeans, sheets (at night too!) and hang those on the line. A moderate 90% less dryer usage can make you smug enough to write into a forum like this :)

And Rachel (or her dear little mother) is right.
Hanging shirts and trousers on hangers on the line pulls out wrinkles and from the line, the hangers transfer straight to the closet, along with their fresh smell. Don't line hang too long though as UV fades colors.

It is my understanding that net metering is used when you have an alternate source of energy - say windmill - and the energy that you don't need is sent back to the power company...they then reimburse you for it. in other words net metering is used to sell your unused energy to your power company...

someone correct me if I am wrong...or I think I'll google to double check

Here's what I found on Wikipedia:
"Net metering is an electricity policy for consumers who own, generally small, renewable energy facilities, such as wind or solar power, or uses vehicle-to-grid systems. "Net", in this context, is used in the sense of meaning "what remains after deductions" -- in this case, the deduction of any energy outflows from metered energy inflows. Under net metering, a system owner receives retail credit for at least a portion of the electricity they generate. The ideal has your existing electricity meter spinning backwards, effectively banking excess electricity production for future credit. In reality, the rules vary significantly by country and possibly state/province; if net metering is available, if and how long you can keep your banked credits, how much the credits are worth (retail/wholesale), etc."

Clothes dryers (electric or gas) for sure are the biggest energy sucking appliances in the house.
Besides from ruining the fabric they heat up the house (in the summer) and can cost as much $ 600.- a year to operate.
Five years ago I bought a "centrifuge" (clothes spinner) which spins out almost all the water left over after the last spinning cycle from your washer. Then I hang dry my clothes or put them in the dryer when I need them right away. Drying time: FIVE minutes!

For years in my area the power company has offered discounted rates if you commit to a certain percentage of your usage being off-peak. That's not net metering it usually called peak metering or time-of-use metering ALL my laundry, dishwasher, 4-hour chili crock and such is run between 7 PM and 7 AM to keep our bill lower as well as reduce demand. (And I can get two loads washed in the morning and hung by 7 AM) Our program also discounts all weekend holiday use but still better to run at night.

I'm surprised to see below 70 degree as the suggested temp to turn off the A/C. Espcially with a breeze & ceiling fans I'm ready to open up the house to the great outdoors at 75 degrees and I live in Florida. Lucky for us we have our washer/dryer in the utility room and no A/C wasted.

@ TW & Janie:

I'm a net meterer. In British Columbia, where I live, the electrical utility (appropriately called BC Hydro), uses the term for people or businesses when generate their own power and sell excess to the grid. I have a 3.6 kW solar array and my power bill for the last two months was $0.56.

Cheers!

That is so cool!
It is my dream to live off the grid, in an earthship. Folks in my neck of the woods think I'm crazy...but They will learn before too long.
Our power bill - without A/C (because it was broken for a year and a half)- just running fans, hot water to bathe, and occasionally the diswasher(air dry setting) was $280.
SOmeone told me a few months ago that in Virginia, we don't have enough wind or sun to have wind or solar power 24/7....I laughed at that...but he was serious - said a scientist told him that....*sigh*

I am a little perplexed about this issue. I recently bought the Home Energy Power Cost Monitor from this site and set it up. Since then, I've been taking note of what happens when I use my dryer and it seems to only go up by like 8 cents. Now, my dryer is new, one of those Whirlpool Duets, and I always run it on low - but still. After all I'd read here, I was surprised. Meanwhile, every once in a while, the usage on the monitor goes up to over a dollar - though these times are not when the dryer is on. I have two A/Cs (zoned) - I thought perhaps this was when they were both on - but haven't fully investigated yet. I am currently installing new soybean-based insulation in my attic and basement to reduce furnace and A/C use (I live in chicago), and will continue to monitor things - but meanwhile I don't really understand why my dryer isn't the "power hog" everyone else seems to complain about. Ideas?

No, Adam - it's electric. So strange. It's on right now and my monitor says 16 cents. Go figure.

Actually, I found that by upgrading to a water-conserving clothes washer that my clothes come out needing much less drying time, and at least during the dry season (april to december) that I can hang all my clothes on racks in the garage and get them dry without using the electric dryer at all. Also, Time Of Use metering is pretty neat. I get cheap power until noon, and then again after 6:00 p.m., so I can stumble out of bed and get one load of laundry done and on the racks while I get ready for work.

As always, it is just a SUGGESTION so people, don't get your panties in a wad!! I wash my clothes all the time at night and just either throw them on the clothesline or in the dryer in the morning. They don't mildew that quick and my washer is over 10 years old! I've only had a problem when I have forgotten and left them sititng in the washer all day.

I'm a newbie to line drying and LOVE it!! As my hubby and I work and mornings are tight getting ready for work, packing lunches, etc....after checking the weather, I will throw a load of laundry in at 8pm ish. Instead of waiting til the busy morning hours, I put it on the line, let it hang through the night & dry during the day. Again, I love it..Peace.

I live in San Antonio, Texas and it is hot most of the year. My air conditioner is on most months. We rarely ever need to use our system for heat. Only in the last two weeks have we been able to open windows at night.

With 5 kids, we have a ton of laundry. We try to dry our clothes on the line as much as possible. When it barely dry, or if it is all the way dry, we through it in the dryer for about 4-5 minutes to soften it up. We wash everything in cold water except bed linens and those nasty white (socks and undies).

When it is too cold and the clothes will never dry outside in my needed time frame, we hang them inside. I grew up doing this, mostly to preserve the color and integrity of the clothes, not for conservation.

While I am sure a newer model washer would use less water (My machine is 10 yrs old) and probably need less drying time, I can't replace something that is working. Believe me, I've wanted it break but it just won't dry.

Jenni - I'm a cold water fan too, but I found out from my technician (when I finally broke down and bought a new machine) that there is a minimum temperature for the detergent to work properly. Contact the manufacturer to find out exactly what the right temp is for their product, otherwise you're not getting your clothes as clean as they can be...

What a great discussion!
I love line drying, but where I live we can have 3 weeks of rain, or rain without warning, so a good portion of the year I can't hang the clothes outside. For a while, we had a clothesline rigged up downstairs in the basement in the same room as the woodstove, that worked pretty well but rendered the room unusable. So most of the year, I try to hang outside (if you throw line dried items in the dryer for 5 minutes it softens them up and removes excess lint), and in the winter I at least hang jeans and towels inside till they are mostly dry. A word of caution, if you keep your thermostat at 60 or below in the winter, mildew might set in before they dry. My personal experience is that leaving them out for 12 hours is fine.

Regarding cold water use, I work in a hospital and had always washed my clothes in cold water, but now I am washing my scrubs separately in hot water because they are so many things (think MRSA)that I don't want in my family laundry. I figure hot water is probably safer than bleach.
I have also found myself washing the socks and underwear (and often towels)separately in hot water. I'm feeling pretty guilty about this, but safety comes before money. Any ideas?

An idea about getting whites white without hot water or bleach, I like to put something under the lid in the evening so the washer won't close all the way, then start the load (add Borax or washing soda), the washer will stop at the end of the wash cycle and soak all night. Then I just close the lid in the morning and finish the cycle.

Oh, I almost forgot, you can save space on an indoor line by putting shirts on hangers, then hanging the hanger from the line.

Thanks, and happy hanging!
(Just kidding)

I'm not sure that the hot water will kill Staph. I know the manufacturers claim the new Steamwashers kill 99% of bacteria, but I haven't actually seen any scientific evidence of this, only manufacturer claims. For instance they may be saying this because the water gets heated to x degrees where x degrees is the temp that kills most bacteria, but they should verify this by actually running a load and checking the actual kill compared to a control. Suffice to say, washing machines are not autoclaves, which are designed for sole purpose of sterilizing with high pressure, heat, and humidity. Washing machines do use detergents which aren't used in autoclaves, so I'm sure that probably helps kill some bacteria. Bleach would be very useful--definitely will kill Staph.

Here's a discussion on another forum that I found with a quick Google. http://www.mrsa-forum.com/index.asp?action=replys&forumID=851&subject=minimum%20safe%20temperature%20to%20kill%20MRSA

I think I may have figured out my issue ... I was reading about the Home Energy Power cost Monitor on Amazon and found that apparently it uses the same wireless link as my indoor/outdoor thermometer (433 Mhz) ... I wonder if it's interfering? And if so, what can I do about it? I love my thermometer, I use it every day. Maybe I should post this on the Power Cost Monitor review.