How to Save Money in the Laundry Room

What appliances in your home use the most energy? The hot water heater is the appliance that costs the most to run (not considering home HVAC systems). Right behind it is the washer and dryer’s combined energy use. Although it’s cheaper per load and much more convenient to do laundry at home, there’s a somewhat hidden cost to consider, and that’s the energy it takes to run your washer and dryer.

To save money in your laundry room, consider these tips:

• When using your washing machine, select the right amount of water for the load.
• Consider waiting to do laundry until you have full loads to conserve water.
• Use cold water. Many laundry detergents are now designed to tackle stains in cold water.
• Using warm water instead of hot can cut a load’s energy use in half, and using cold water will save even more.
• Use dryer balls, which help separate clothes and get more air to them, cutting drying time.
• Use lower settings when you use the dryer. Even if your dryer runs longer, you’ll use less energy and be less likely to over-dry your clothes.
• Clean the lint out of your dryer between loads and scrub the filter once a month to remove buildup.
• Put like items together since lighter-weight clothes take less time to dry. Drying towels and heavier cottons take longer.
• Use the moisture sensor option on your dryer if it has one.
• Wear clothes more than once between laundering.
• Consider an Energy Star dryer which uses 20% less energy than a conventional model/ 
• Energy Star-certified washers use about 25% less energy and 33% less water than regular washers.

To learn more about how much you are spending to run your washer and dryer each year, refer to energy.gov’s appliance energy use calculator.