Read the Manual

The biggest electricity user in our house is the electric drier. The power guys were here a few months ago and showed me how fast the meter starts running (ours flashes, not spins) when the drier is on. So it was distressing to find out I had no idea how our clothes drier works.

All my life I had been setting the drier to a setting like "40 Minutes", and if the clothes weren't dry enough, I hit the button for another 40 minutes. Last week Mountain Dad noticed what I was doing and remarked, "Why don't you just let the drier sense when the clothes are dry and turn itself off?" He was trying to keep me from wasting my time, but it suddenly occurred to me that I was running the drier a whole lot more than necessary...and wasting electricity.

Our drier has a setting that says, "Permanent Press", but right next to that label is, "Auto Sensor." It turns out I should have been using those settings, but because the clothes I was drying weren't "permanent press," I though it wasn't the right setting.

Now, I can choose between "More Dry" or "Less Dry" and the drier stops when the clothes are dry. A big load will take more than an hour, smaller loads, less. But I was drying stuff in 40 or 50 minute chunks, wasting time and energy. I should have read the instruction manual...7 years ago!