The Right to Dry shall not be infringed

[Ivan Seeking]

While I realize this could get heated, it is a pressing issue, so I think it is time that we as a nation deal with our dirty laundry and come clean on the right to dry.

Right to dry

Some states have passed “right to dry” laws. In Florida, no one can ban clotheslines. Colorado law protects retractable, but not permanent, clotheslines. In 2008, Hawaii’s governor vetoed a “right to dry” bill...

http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/Latest-News/Drying-Clothes-on-Clotheslines.aspx
http://right2dry.org/

Learn about the thermal freedom fighter, Susan Taylor, who is fighting for your right to dry [takes a moment to load]
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5153411n

 

[Evo]

Clothes dried in sunlight smell like chlorine to me and burn my nose and make me sneeze, especially in time of high pollen. The sun also fades the clothes.

Also, the clothes need to be ironed after being line dried, so how much time and electricity does that waste?

Not to mention line dried clothes are scratchy.

You'll pry my clothes dryer out of my cold dead hands.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Clothes dried in sunlight smell like chlorine to me and burn my nose and make me sneeze, especially in time of high pollen. The sun also fades the clothes.

Also, the clothes need to be ironed after being line dried, so how much time and electricity does that waste?

Not to mention line dried clothes are scratchy.

You'll pry my clothes dryer out of my cold dead hands.

No one is trying to take away your right to tumble.

 

[Evo]

No one is trying to take away your right to tumble.

LOL

The only thing I remember of my chilhood was hanging up clothes, taking down clothes, laying the clothes out, sprinkling them with water, rolling up and filling baskets with damp clothes and then ironing all day.

 

[mgb_phys]

http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/images/comics/db010507.gif

http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/images/comics/db010508.gif

On an annual basis, electric dryers in the United States consume the rough equivalent of 30 million tons of coal—the output of the nation's 15 least productive nuclear reactors. That consumption is expensive: Estimates suggest that it costs the average household more than $100 a year to use a dryer.

Drying outside also kills bugs, running gear comes out of the dryer with all the bacteria alive and refreshed. The UV in sunlight kills them

 

[rootX]

I never heard of this law before or hazards of having clothlines.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I never heard of this law before or hazards of having clothlines.

Its not so much that it is a hazard, it is that people think they look ugly. At my last place, based on a similar reasoning, I received a warning from the city that I must place my garbage cans in a location not visible from the street or I would be fined.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I see the opportunity for compromise. No doubt someone has already done this...

The majority of the energy used for a load of clothes goes to the heating element. Could the benefits of tumbling and the antibacterial properties of sunlight be combined in a semi-passive solar dryer? Use grid energy to run the drum motor, but tap a passive source of heat for the drying. Additionally, direct sunlight into the drum, pehaps using a light-tube like those used for skylights. Or, perhaps the dryer could essentially be positioned outside, against an exterior wall as an air conditioner might be positioned, but still accessable from inside the house. Just shooting from the hip here, but you get the idea.

A typical heating element might require 4000-5000 watts.

 

[Proton Soup]

it would be interesting to see a list of all the environmentalists that live in clothesline-free neighborhoods. perhaps clothes dryers are the true source of "smug".