Energy Conservation Tip – Keep the Dryer Lint Trap Clean

Part of my energy conservation mantra is, “Clothes should be dried, not baked.” That means high heat is rarely necessary to get your clothes dry. I use low heat almost exclusively and it works just fine. The key is to keep the lint trap clean so you maximize circulation of warmed air that helps remove moisture from your clothes more efficiently than higher temperatures.

Here’s why it works.

Electricity is efficient at driving a motor and spinning your dryer, so it’s good we use it for that purpose. The mechanism of drying your clothes is evaporation, which can be done at any temperature, but works best at elevated temperatures. Sure, high heat is more effective (like stomping on the gas pedal), but it’s least efficient from an energy consumption standpoint. In other words, high heat uses more energy for the work performed, and therefore gets the job done faster but at greater cost.

As you’re aware, air movement promotes evaporation. So, for maximum effectiveness, the dryer heats the air to promote evaporation and keeps it moving through the dryer to remove moisture. Think of yourself outdoors. Standing in the sun will dry you out. Standing in the wind will dry you out too. Standing in the wind on a warm day will dry you out much faster than the sun or wind alone. So, heat and air movement work as a team.

To maximize efficiency and effectiveness, warm air in the dryer must move freely. That means you have to keep the lint trap clean. I suggest cleaning the lint trap before each load.

A member of my family had a clogged dryer vent that I helped clean out recently by getting on the roof and swabbing it out with a long rope and some wadded up rags tied in the middle. Before the cleaning, she always used high heat to dry the clothes. Now, she only uses low heat and gets the same results. That’s the power of circulating air in a clothes dryer.

Clothes dry more efficiently when you allow the air to circulate freely. Keeping the lint trap clean is an easy energy conservation technique for those of us who use a clothes dryer.