Washing clothes is one of those inescapable chores of daily life, but drying them can be even more costly — both for our wallets and the environment. In the U.S., over 80% of households own a clothes dryer, making it the country with the highest rate of dryer usage globally. This convenience comes at a significant cost.
A new study from the University of Michigan found that machine drying accounts for 3% of U.S. residential energy consumption, costing households over $7 billion annually and emitting 27 million metric tons of CO₂.
The cost of drying
Clothes dryer ownership varies widely worldwide. While more than 80% of U.S. households have a dryer — largely due to affluence, convenience, and home design — other regions are far less reliant on them. In many European and Asian countries, smaller living spaces, higher energy costs, and a stronger emphasis on sustainability lead to lower ownership rates. In South Korea, for example, fewer than 30% of households own a dryer.
“In most other places in the world, it’s hard to find a clothes dryer,” said Zhu Zhu, the lead author of the new study who performed the work as a master’s student. He is now a doctoral student at Purdue University.
“We know dryers consume a lot of energy, so what if you used line drying instead? How much could you save? How many CO2 emissions could you avoid?” Zhu said.
According to the study’s lifecycle analysis, running a typical non-Energy Star (ES) certified electric dryer for its entire lifespan produces approximately 3,800 kilograms of CO₂ emissions — the equivalent of burning nearly 400 gallons of gasoline. By contrast, line drying produces zero emissions and costs nothing beyond the clothesline itself.
Collectively, dryers cost the US over $7 billion per year. Over the lifetime of a dryer, 100% line drying could save a household upwards of $2,100. Even only using line drying sometimes could make a sizeable impact.
Use the dryer less
For those who aren’t ready to give up their dryers completely, the study found that minor behavioral shifts can still lead to major reductions in energy use and emissions. For instance, running electric dryers at night when the energy grid is less strained can cut emissions by 8% and using a higher spin speed on your washer before drying reduces the moisture in clothes, cutting energy use by up to 17%.
However, the biggest change would come from using line drying every now and then. Drying just half of your laundry on a line instead of in a dryer reduces emissions by 56%.
“We tend to focus on technological improvements, but a lot of the time, behavioral changes can have larger impacts,” Miller said. “If we are going to tackle climate change, we have to think about both cultural and technical solutions.”
Despite its benefits, line drying remains rare in the U.S. This is partly due to cultural norms — in many suburban areas, clotheslines are associated with lower-income households, and some homeowner associations (HOAs) even ban outdoor drying. Then, there’s the issue of convenience. Line drying takes longer, and some people don’t like how it makes clothes feel.
But these hurdles are not insurmountable.
Indoor drying is an option. A dry, well-ventilated room can work just as well as an outdoor clothesline. Many Europeans dry their clothes inside on racks, even in small apartments.
“You don’t need a big balcony or a huge backyard,” said Zhu, who line-dried in his small apartment during college. “Based on my personal experience, you have more capacity than you imagine.”
The study “The relative benefits of electrification, energy efficiency, and line drying clothes in the United States” has been published in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling.
