Energy Use: Perception vs. Reality
I’ve done energy surveys on hundreds of homes to determine their suitability for renewable energy systems. One thing that I’ve learned is that many 
people are out of touch with energy reality. This is especially true in the U.S. where we’ve experienced more energy abundance (and waste) than any previous generation. We want our power all right, and we want it cheap and unlimited.
To see what I mean, just read the online comments posted below any story pertaining to energy rate increases. It’s understandable that people are frustrated with rising costs and that they will complain about it. But complaints don’t accomplish much.
Can’t Have it Both Ways
At the home of one of my survey clients, the owner never stopped berating the power company, telling me how much they were “ripping him off.” He was hardly using any energy – in his mind anyway.
In reality, the home was a poorly-insulated sieve, leaking cool air on a very hot day. The curtains were drawn in an effort to keep out the heat of the sun. The lights (each of them a significant heat source) were on because the curtains darkened the rooms. Multiple fans were blowing in unoccupied rooms (they only cool if blowing directly on one’s body). A room addition behind the garage was as cold as a meat locker, and an owner-installed AC vent blew air into the uninsulated garage in an effort to “keep it a little cooler in there.”
To that customer, it all seemed perfectly reasonable in the profligate age of energy entitlement – except that his power bills were a rip-off. Reality was that he was using one hell of a lot of electricity. In the end, he chose not to embrace efficiency or a renewable energy system, because it was “just another way to pay more for less.” Hmm, you can’t have it both ways.
Not everyone is that extreme. There are people like Jane Feldman (whose story was featured in my last column) who are quite the opposite, taking serious responsibility for their energy future. With society depending so much on energy, it’s only logical to use it wisely. But we’re also a society that values aesthetics to the point that it has become detrimental in some ways.
What About Simple Solar?
In an effort to promote the use of renewable energy, Chapter 278 of the Nevada Revised Statutes mentions solar and wind energy dozens of times. It specifically states that no “governing body” can restrict citizens from “using a system for obtaining solar [or wind] energy on his or her property.” There is one solar / wind energy system that everyone can afford but that hardly anyone uses: a clothes line.
Instead of directly drying laundry with the sun and wind, we prefer to destructively mine the earth for ancient sunlight, transport the fossilized fuel thousands of miles, burn it to heat water into steam to turn a turbine (creating pollution all the while), then send the resulting electricity often hundreds of miles further to roll our clothes around in an expensive automated drum that we fill with air heated by electricity or more ancient sunlight (natural gas). And then we complain that we have to pay for it all!
How ridiculous is it that? We could get a bit of (usually needed) exercise and fresh air to dry the laundry naturally. Instead, we prefer to destructively mine the earth for ancient sunlight, transport the fossilized fuel thousands of miles, burn it to heat water into steam to turn a turbine (creating pollution all the while), then send the resulting electricity often hundreds of miles further to roll our clothes around in an expensive automated drum that we fill with air heated by electricity or more ancient sunlight (natural gas).
The 
process pulls already conditioned air out of the house requiring even more energy to recondition the space. And then we complain that we have to pay for it all!
Money Laundering!
This Rube Goldberg approach to energy is about as efficient as using a knife to eat soup. If that’s not crazy enough, we actually have local “governing bodies” that prohibit the use of natural solar and wind energy for this purpose! Maybe saving bucks by drying clothes in the sun is considered a form of money laundering.
If you are concerned about energy rate increases, attend a Public Utilities Commission hearing where your input can make a difference. If you’re the proactive type, make a plan, save your money, embrace efficiency and ultimately look to generate your own power on the roof.
If you’re really a rebel, or perhaps simply a practical person, put up a clothesline and stand for your right to use affordable renewable energy. If we are to survive and progress as a society, we must choose between common sense and unreasonable expectations that put us between a rock and a hard place. After all, we can’t have it both ways.
Great post. Very mind changing. I’m not very big on either using much electric or natural gas. But this has definitely had an impact on me. Very valuable information. I do however, agree with you, that many people complain a lot about it and always want to have it both ways. It does seem impossible… Who knows. Maybe in the future mankind will create a way to make it possible. Yes! Drying laundry in the sun saves a lot of energy! I do that myself! But only when there’s (obviously) sun. There are people who live in really cold climates where there’s little to no % Sunshine and it is harder for them to do things like this. But there are always alternatives! Wind power, water power, etc. Great Post. Loved it!
Thanks for the feedback Jonathan! Getting people to think a little bit about their daily choices is a large part of what these Green Living columns are all about.
You’re right that not all solutions work everywhere all the time. Here in Nevada, we have abundant sunshine and very dry air, yet many homeowner’s associations have banned the practice of drying clothes naturally outside. It just seems crazy to me.
That does seem very odd… Why would homeowner’s associations ban the practice of drying clothes naturally outside. It doesn’t make any sense because Nevada is very dry and sunny! It would probably dry faster naturally then in a dryer!
I read the article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal by Steve Rypka. The essence of the article was that we should go back to using clothes lines as an alternative to using a dryer because of the fossil fuels. “We could get a bit of exercise and fresh air to dry the laundry naturally.” We?? Somehow I doubt that Mr Rypka is going to be the one hanging the laundry. This sounds like an idealistic return to the 1950s when women didn’t have to work outside the home. We need practical suggestions that are in touch with the realities of today’s lifestyles. 25% of households with children are headed by women. Does the author seriously think that women today are in a position to return to hanging out the laundry? And if the he had ever hung out the laundry for a family of four he would see why even if women could, they wouldn’t want to. A more boring way to spend an hour is hard to imagine, except for the ironing that would have to come after as the clothes don’t come out as smooth as in a dryer. All I can say to this suggestion is “How ridiculous is that?”
I’d like to add some thoughts, while we’re on the subject of naturally drying clothes. Of course dry, hot, and sunny will be faster. But my husband’s parents used to hang the laundry outside even in winter where it was often below zero. The clothes would get stiff (!) but they would dry. Now we dry our clothes outside unless it’s raining or very cold. We hang the clothes in the “furnace room” the rest of the time. Once you have that habit of planning ahead – just a little – it is SO easy and an obvious choice. I just don’t understand why some people are so resistant to doing what is right and, in this case, what is beneficial to their own wallets. Thanks for *another* great article!
“This Rube Goldberg approach to life is about as efficient as using a knife to eat soup.”
classic.
an outstanding piece and items dried in the sun smell better too.
thanks for this article.
~ c
@Crystal: Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I would like to respond to some of your comments.
The point of the column was not to drive anyone back to the 50s or to attack women’s rights as you imply but simply to point out the dichotomy between energy beliefs and reality. Many people seem to want all the benefits but are unwilling to look at alternatives or pay the real price. In a way, you helped make my point and since the article got you thinking about energy use, I consider it a success.
Let me assure you that the word “we” still denotes oneself and at least one other. I regularly wash dishes, vacuum the floor, dust the furniture and (gasp!) do laundry, among other things. My wife and I share household responsibilities and the concept of “women’s work” means nothing to us.
I’ve hung the laundry for a family of four many times. It’s no big deal really, just a bit of exercise and fresh air like I said. It only takes a few minutes.
As Jonathan said, “Yes! Drying laundry in the sun saves a lot of energy! I do that myself!”
As Suzanne said, “Once you have that habit of planning ahead – just a little – it is SO easy and an obvious choice.”
As Cherie said, “Items dried in the sun smell better too.”
I think everyone should be free to choose what works best for them, even it includes hanging their clothes on a line.
I read your article in the Las Vegas Review Journal which was titled “Common sense battles unreasonable expectations.”
I do applaud some of your common sense energy savers although it should be noted by you that it should NOT come at the expense of others. Your article states “We could get a bit of (usually needed) exercise and fresh air to dry the laundry naturally”.
My neighbor has been airing his socks and underwear in my backyard view for years now. He has a very large backyard but he has chosen to use his grape arbor to string his clothes line. I did explain to him that his laundry is in view when I look out my back windows and from my back patio when my trees lose their leaves, to no avail. He refuses to move his clothes line.
I once had a clothes line and the smell of the air dried sheets and towels were delicious. This was NOT in view of my neighbors and I would have ceased hanging them if it did. I have no HOA, so I have no recourse.
Thanks for your comments Vicki. I agree that our actions should never inconvenience others and for me at least, that’s a given. Unfortunately, there are always those who are insensitive to their neighbor’s requests, whether it’s dirty socks or barking dogs.
Perhaps you could plant a barrier of vegetation to block your view of his stuff. I’ve got a nice wall of Bank’s Rose that works well here. Just a suggestion.
I suppose the bottom line for me is, given a choice between a sustainable society and a view of socks and underwear, I would gladly accept the underwear.
One other perspective: Many people in Japan recently found themselves not only without clothes dryers, but without homes, schools, cars, food, fresh water and just about everything else of value. Many of their family members and friends simply vanished in the tsunami. I have a friend who recently moved there and through her eyes, I’ve learned a new appreciation for the simple things that we so often take for granted. (The same holds true for those in the U.S. recently affected by the tornadoes, floods and wildfires.) Life is precious.
I hope you are able to resolve your issue or at least not let it bother you so much. May you [often, at least] gaze in peace upon interrupted beauty.
Living in Maine we can’t always use our clothes line. There are rainy spells and we’re not yet dedicated enough to freeze our fingers while hanging laundry that will be stiff as a board when dry. But we (and I do much of the household laundry, currently 3 adults) do prefer line drying to using our electric dryer. We make some use of wooden drying racks indoors, especially in winter when it also adds some much needed moisture to the air in the house.
We’ve become enmeshed in an economy and culture based on consumption. The rewards and measuring devices we’ve allowed to flourish equate consumption with reward. The more we consume, the more “The Economy” hums along; the more we consume, the more we want; the more we consume, the less capable of distinguishing wants from needs we become.
One thing we NEED is to think about how to be (as the slogan has it) part of the solution, not part of the problem. One illusion advanced by consumerism is the notion that “economy of scale” is equivalent to “bigger is better”. We need to realize that hundreds of thousands of small scale solutions might well be more economically sound than continually seeking the next humongous “silver bullet” solution to our energy needs. [“Psst! Hey, Mistah, wanna buy in early before GE announces their new nuclear fusion breakthrough? New York powered for a year by a loaf of Wonderbread, I promise ya.”]
We’re convinced we should consume more, faster, which always requires more energy to accomplish, energy mostly produced by consuming resources that are finite, making them ever more expensive … in multiple ways. We need to revise our thinking and explore alternatives if we want our descendents to praise rather than revile us.
Chris, you’ve made some excellent points and thanks for showing how you’ve adapted greener ways of living to your local conditions.
You are right about “The Economy.” It has become some sort of monstrous deity that is simultaneously feared and worshiped. I consider the word “consumer” to be very derogatory. We’re much more than that. All it takes it choosing to live on the planet as if we intend to stay.