Homestead Install #064: Your Washer Has a Second Bill

The washer spins. The dryer hums. Another load is done.

But the machine you watched may not be the only thing you paid to run.

Hot wash water had to get hot somewhere. Then the dryer used heat to take the water back out.

One basket of clothes can set off more than one energy cost.

Today, keep the help your machines give you. Find one heated step that this load does not need.

Time: 15 minutes. Cost: Use what you own. One suitable load has a clear plan to use less heat, and you know how you will check that the clothes are clean and fully dry.

Print this issue for your household binder. A saved phone note works, too.

Notice: The washer motor, water heating, and drying are different parts of laundry. Your home may use gas or electricity for heat. Check one load instead of guessing at savings from a national price number.

Build: One Less Heated Step.

Keep: One suitable load has a clear plan to use less heat, and you know how you will check that the clothes are clean and fully dry.

This morning's price report, released September 11, puts electricity prices 3.8% above a year ago. The monthly number fell a little. Both can be true.

That is a reason to check your own bill and habits, not assume every load suddenly costs more.

ENERGY STAR points to two useful choices: use cold water for suitable loads, and air-dry clothes when you can. Always follow the clothing label and the cleaning needs of the load.

The next effect is easy to miss. A normal task repeats. If one needless heated step stays in that routine, you may keep paying for it week after week.

Start with one ordinary item. You are looking for a change that saves effort or energy without creating a new problem.

On May 11, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an order to create the Rural Electrification Administration.

The goal was to help bring electricity to places that still lacked it. For a farm family, that could mean far more than a bright bulb over the table.

Think about washday before a house had running hot water and an electric washer. Water had to be moved. Fuel had to be gathered or bought. Someone had to heat the water and scrub the clothes.

The work reached across the yard and through the house before a clean shirt ever reached the line.

A Library of Congress photo of an electrified farm shows the change. An electric washer does the rubbing. The photo's caption describes a water system and heater helping get the wash onto the line by mid-morning.

The picture was meant to show progress. And there was real help in those machines, especially for women who had carried so much of that work.

Yet look at what did not disappear. Water still had to move. It still had to be heated when hot water was used. Wet clothes still needed to dry.

The work became easier to start with a switch. Some of the effort moved out of sight and onto a bill.

That is the useful part of this history for a modern home.

We do not need to return to a washboard to notice what a load needs. We can use the machine and still choose the steps.

Imagine placing one ordinary shirt on a drying rack after the washer finishes. You keep the washer's help. You skip the heat that the shirt does not need.

A good household system keeps the useful work and checks the hidden work.

In Pompeii, a house became a laundry. Today, the site is known as the Fullery of Stephanus.

The name comes from writing found at the building. Archaeologists link Stephanus with the business, though his exact role is not certain.

Inside, the house had been changed to suit the work. There were tubs for treating cloth. Other basins held water for rinsing. Above, a terrace gave wet cloth a place to dry.

The building itself helps tell the story. The workers could not stop at “washed.” A wet piece of cloth still had steps to go through before someone could wear it.

Imagine carrying a heavy, wet bundle from the washing area toward the drying space. The first part is finished. The job is not.

Most of the workers were enslaved. Their hard labor is part of the cost behind the clean clothes. An old method was not free simply because it had no electric meter.

We are not borrowing the harsh cleaning methods used there. The useful thing to notice is the order of the work.

Wash. Rinse. Dry. Finish.

Each stage had a place, a purpose, and a cost in time or effort. The terrace mattered because the work was planned all the way to dry clothing.

You can use that way of looking at a job in a much safer, simpler home routine.

Before pressing the next button, ask which stage you are starting and what this item needs. Some clothes need special care. Some ordinary items can dry on a rack you already own.

The end of one machine's cycle is a good place to make a choice.

Do not let the next step happen only because it always has.

A job can become easier while some of its costs become harder to see. Follow the whole job, then choose which steps it needs.

The washer motor, water heating, and drying are different parts of laundry. Your home may use gas or electricity for heat. Check one load instead of guessing at savings from a national price number.

Done: One suitable load has a clear plan to use less heat, and you know how you will check that the clothes are clean and fully dry.

The clothing label and your machine manual — These tell you more about the right wash choice than a general rule. Use the gear already in your home.

You can keep the machine’s help without using heat for every step.

— Ethan Archer
Homesteader Depot

Build a home that does useful work with less waste.

P.S. Which do you use most: a hot wash, a warm wash, or cold water? Hit reply and tell me. Send this to someone who is trying to trim the power bill without making home life harder.

P.P.S. Keep building: