Spin Dryer and loads of savings! (Get it...laundry...loads...)

Today, our clothes spin dryer came in. I have been wanting one for quite a time now and we finally ordered it!
It came from Laundry Alternative. This is the same company that sells the WonderWash, of which I am still enamored. I am so happy with this purchase!
It fits in our laundry room and the cord is long enough to reach the outlet. I cannot believe how much water came out of the clothes with the use of the spin dryer! You won't either. Included in this entry is a video of the final water amount from the towels I did tonight.
Towels are my horrible load. I hate them! I can't air dry them at all because they don't dry enough and end up reeking of mildew. I have tried half drying them by air and finishing them off in the dryer, the other way around, and totally air drying them. They still stink. They now get the full drying treatment. That said, it would take almost 1-1/2 hours for them to dry without stink. Tonight, the spin dryer extracted 9-1/2 cups of water out of the load! That is over 1/2 a gallon of water! They only took 35 minutes to dry completely. I swear they were even fluffier!
I did some conservative calculations to see our savings. Some websites list electric clothes dryers as 3.5 kWh while others go up to 5.0 kWh. My conservative calculations are based on the 3.5kWh.
Previous loads to dry would use 5.25kWh to dry and would cost $.41596. Doing 1 load a day, the year's totals are 1916.25 kWh and cost $151.83. This does not include those loads that are air dried and neither do the following figures.
With the spin dryer, use will be 2.03 kWh to dry and will cost $.16084. The electricity use and cost for the spin dryer's use is .015kWh and cost $.00119. The total cost is $.16203. Doing 1 load a day, the year's totals will be 740.95 kWh a cost of $59.14.
This is a year's savings of 1175.3 kWh and $92.96.
The clothes go from the washing machine, into the spin dryer for water extraction, and then into the dryer. It is an added step, but the total savings are so worth it! Plus, the extracted water has residue from oils, dirt, detergent, and hard water. All in all, that should also save wear and tear on our clothing.
The spin dryer was $163.50 all total. I know with the air drying I do, we will make the cost back by the end of the year. I especially know that because when summer hits, I won't have to cool down more of the dryer's heat output with the air conditioner on those loads I run.
So, big post with lots of info. It's so interesting and I am so pleased that I couldn't help myself.

World & WonderWash

Trying to regroup and get into a routine is a hard thing to do! I miss Phoebe during the day now that she is off learning.
I am getting the third bedroom ready for the girls. That means all of the sewing needs to be moved and projects finished.

I completed this one very simple project. I shouldn't even call it a project as it required the minimal of effort. Most of the effort needed was to actually start it! There are some more of those types of "projects" rolling in there.
I got a "world" panel from WalMart. I put chambray fabric backing I got during the $1/yard sale at my favorite fabric shop, Memories by the Yard. That cool pink/green/purple fabric was also there on sale. I couldn't pass it up! I really like it as a play rug. The world is also working fabulously as a play rug. They launder easily.
Speaking of laundering and saving the world, I got my WonderWash! Sarah & Grant got it for me in Colorado from Craigslist for $20. That is so cool. Thanks, Sarah & Grant!
Mike & I figured out that we are using quite the gallonage of water for our wash. We also figured that approximately $30 of our electricity bill is coming from laundry. That is almost a quarter on our average month! This site helped us do rough calculations.
San Antonio water is very hard. I soften the laundry with Calgon, but holy mackerel, it is not cheap stuff! Since the WonderWash needs less than 2 gallons to clean & another 2 gallons to rinse, I am saving on water, electricity, and moulah! I use much less chemicals to clean, soften, and finish off the cloth.
All of the cloth diapers get washed in it. Using way less water and getting them cleaner than ever before. So far, I haven't needed to strip them.
Mike's dark colored polos get worn too quickly with the machine. I am hoping to keep them looking better without all the harsh agitation. Plus, I can add starch to the rinse water without having to use cupfuls!
My first wash was a decorative blanket that I have put off washing in the machine because I didn't want to ruin it. It was dirty, but it came out looking fabulous! The grey water draining off after wash proved it was clean.
Next up will be the spin dryer complement.

Wool dryer balls

Here is the collection of wool dryer balls I made.

The wool helps with static and the quantity is lowering the time needed to dry items. Those that I line dry get a no-heat tumble for a few minutes with lavender oil on a dryer ball.

Love these little balls of fluff! Better than a Pomeranian!

Read more about how I made them on LbP.

Laundry room makeover

We got serious about adding some storage to the house. It began with some shelves in Phoebe's closet. Wow! 2 shelves makes such a difference in her room! Seeing how great that was, the determination was made to equip the laundry room with organization. Lowes had the cabinets we wanted because it allowed me to keep a bar next to the washing machine for hanging lightweight stuff on the circular doohickey. (Notice I start out with "we" and move onto "me." Mike is a good man and is good to me!)
See that tall cabinet? We originally were going with another cabinet that was $100. While heading to check out, I spotted that tall cabinet clearanced for $25. Can you believe that it matched the front exactly? Mike wanted to make sure that I wasn't just getting it because it was cheaper, but I was sure. Totally sure to this day, too, because I got an open shelf out of it.
Mike installed a 1x2" piece of wood to the ceiling and then I attached hook tape to with a staple gun. I sewed up this pleated curtain with the loop tape on the back. Easy up, easy down, easy to wash, excellent to cover up the additional junk up there above the cabinet. $1 a yard home decor fabric, too. Got 20 yards of it and I fear that won't be enough for all I want to do with it.
Originally, this horrible builder-installed shelf system thingy was above the machines. To expand air drying capacity, I moved it to the opposite wall above the door. All of our medicines are way out of reach, clothes can hang to dry, and oddball computer stuff has a home. (Notice the wooden clothespin on Mike's polo. He doesn't like it when I button them up to hang as is whacks out the buttonhole. I don't like how the whole collar looks whimpy without it being attached while it hangs. Problem solved with a clothes pin.)


Here is the additional shelf I got because of the $25 cabinet. Since we went with the bar on the large set of cabinets, there was an extra chunk of "wood" for this. The laundry items I need are in easy reach, the liquid won't make a huge mess (last bit of purchased laundry detergent there. Making my own! I will report with recipe and how it works out.), and you can't see it from the hallway!
The pièce de résistance is that I filled in all the holes and touched up the walls. It looks perfect!
For that honey-do list: laundry room-check!

The circular doohickey strategically shot around the unmentionables.

PS-I like to blog about all the stuff I do as it helps to quantify things for me. I feel accomplished when I can rave about my, well, accomplishments! Not all are fantastic, but a darned lot of them are pretty downright cool!
My posts have been minimal lately as we ended off the school year and I have a great big list of things to post about. While outlining them, I realized that some need raving here, but tutorials and more info can go on my LbP crafty blog. I keep the other WordPress blog because I can upload PDFs and that is my preference for patterns and print-offs. Duplication has been a concern between the 2 and has subsequently kept me from doing a whole lot with the WP blog. So, to differentiate, this blog will rave and the other will outline the process.