September 2007

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I have been a member of Carteret-Craven Electric since 1998. Over the years, I have received your magazine, and I read it every time cover to cover.
I noticed that for a while now you have put in some “green” articles, highlighting ways to save energy and use less electricity.

I am a native Californian who long ago was exposed to conserving energy. But I was influenced as a child by my mom, who is from southeastern Kentucky, to a practice of conserving energy which appears to be considered archaic by many.
The practice is to simply use a “solar clothes dryer”—a clothesline—and let the sun and air dry clothes. My solar clothes dryer is an umbrella-shaped one, but we have a family of three, so it is sufficient.

Of course, the electricity-related benefit is that we use our dryer much less. I am more than aware that the dryer, along with the hot water heater, is an “energy hog.” So I am very careful about using the dryer, and when I do I make sure to clean the filter so it will run more efficiently.

But the solar clothes dryer allows me to avoid using hot or even warm water for wash cycles. I own a washer which has an automatic cold water rinse cycle, but also has a three-temperature setting as well as three water levels (I also conserve water). When clothes are dried out in the sun as weather permits, the UV rays naturally bleach clothes and kill germs. The sun and air also freshen the clothes.

As I look around while driving, I rarely notice any clotheslines or other ways people put clothing out to dry. Years back it was the norm.

With the realization that our planet is in trouble, and with home electricity rates as they are, it just boggles my mind that so many people don’t take advantage of a free resource—nearly unlimited—to lower their electric bills by just hanging their clothes out to dry on the line. Maybe we could start a trend. I know this may sound a bit hokey but “hang it out” comes to mind as a slogan. Or maybe “put it on the line.”

Dori Oney, Havelock, Carteret-Craven Electric