NFCCA

Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News”

Northwood News ♦ February 2009

Our Solar Dryer:  How It Works

By Fiona Morrissey

Sears, Best Buy, and Home Depot do not stock them, they cannot be bought through a catalogue, and, although they are the greenest way of drying clothes, I have not seen Solar Dryers advertised anywhere.  Solar Dryers are cheap, cost nothing to run, and last for decades.  So how do you go about getting one?  Hop in your car and drive to Strosneider’s, buy a few yards of rope and a set of wooden pegs and there you are:  a solar dryer is none other than — surprise! — your traditional clothes line.

My husband Brian bought me a washing-line back in October and strung it up between the garden shed and the oak tree.  Even in the cooler autumn/winter weather, our washing line works.  I put out laundry in the morning and take it in before dark.  If the laundry is still a little damp, I hang it on a clothes rack in front of a heating vent.  By morning the clothes are usually dry.  Jeans and towels take a little longer, but Brian and I don’t mind because we enjoy the smell of fresh air that line-dried laundry brings into our home.  In rain, and freezing temperatures such as we’re having now (I write this January 17), electric dryers are a useful stand-by.  And that’s how I imagine they will be used in the future — for emergencies only.

Everyone knows that washing lines reduce energy bills and are good for the earth but not everyone knows that they prolong the life of your clothing.  Clothes lines are gentle, relying on the action of sun and wind.  Electric dryers are aggressive, battering clothes around at high speeds and at high heat which wear down the fibers.

Wouldn’t it be great if more people in this neighborhood (and indeed everywhere) got a washing-line?  Like us, I think they would get a kick looking at their drying clothes knowing the sun isn’t charging them a single cent.   ■


   © 2009 NFCCA  [Source: https://nfcca.org/news/nn200902g.html]