Night Laundry

I've noticed lately that it's been taking our dryer longer and longer to get things dry.  An average size load takes over two hours, and sometimes even that isn't enough.  We mostly line dry in the summer, but it's February.  Seriously?!  What kind of nut line dries in February?  Apparently me.

Our dryer died this week, the same day our electricity bill arrived: 

5 kilowat hours/day during On-Peak time

5 kilowat hours/day during Mid-Peak time

33 kilowat hours/day duing Off-Peak time.

Yes, it's great that we've managed to arrange our lives so that over 75% of our electricity usage is during the lowest-cost Off-Peak period.  But 33 kW?!  That's a lot of electricity compared to the rest of the day.  The main thing we do during Off-Peak hours is laundry, especially drying.

I put two and two together (broken dryer we can't really afford to replace + electricity bill which shows the dryer is our biggest energy hog) and decided that we'd try going without a dryer.

11pm laundry under a skiff of snow.

What can I say?  I'm frugal.  It does take a bit more time, but so far it hasn't been too much of an inconvenience.  I wash one medium load of laundry in the evening, hang it on the line for overnight through till the next day sometime, then bring it in and hang it on a rack under a furnace vent in the basement to finish.  I do the same with a small load of diapers each night.  If its snowing or raining, clothes go directly to the indoor rack.  If we are due for a multi-day stretch of clear weather, then I do towels & bedding. Strictly speaking the outdoor step isn't necessary, but it makes our clothes smell great (winter fresh!) and it allows me to have multiple loads going at once.

I thought I'd hate it.  I thought I didn't have time. I thought only crazy environmental frugalistas line-dried in the dead of winter. Nathan immediately dismantled the whole thing to find what was broken and repair it if possible.  When it started blowing the breaker each time we tried using it, he was willing to buy a replacement (used) dryer by the end of the week if needed.  But if we don't have a dryer, we can't use it, and that means a lower electricity bill.  Yep, I'm that kinda crazy.