Ben Preiss
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 Hang Laundry, Save Energy, Even If Its Ugly Communities across the US restrict the use of clotheslines for aesthetic reasons, even though it is estimated that clothes dryers account for 6% of America’s electrical consumption. “Nationwide, about 60 million people now live in about 300,000 ‘association governed’ communities, most of which restrict outdoor laundry hanging,” Yahoo news reported. Susan Taylor is fighting her subdivision, Awbrey Butte, and her neighbors for her right to hang out laundry and help or at least not hurt the environment by running the dryer on sunny days. Good for Susan and others like her and good for the states of Utah and Florida that have classified clotheslines as “solar devices” thus making them kosher for backyard use.  But the rules are costly to the environment -- and to consumers -- clothesline advocates argue. Clothes dryers account for 6% of total electricity consumed by U.S. households, third behind refrigerators and lighting, according to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey by the federal Energy Information Administration. It costs the typical household $80 a year to run a standard electric dryer, according to a calculation by E Source Cos., in Boulder, Colo., which advises businesses on reducing energy consumption.
Alexander Lee, founder of clothesline advocacy group Project Laundry List in Concord, N.H., says the clothesline movement is "an outgrowth of interest in what-can-I-do environmentalism." Mr. Lee says he gets more and more email seeking advice on how to hang a clothesline despite neighborhood covenants restricting them.
(online.wsj)References: neatorama, online.wsj Comment: on Fighting The Clothes Line Ban |
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