- Branches and sticks must be no more than four feet long and should be bundled together and tied with string
- No plastic bags, please
- No dirt or stones
Those mega-numbers are fun, but what about your household?
ASE says a typical home, which supposedly does 400 loads of wash a year, could save enough energy to watch TV for 1,363 hours, power a refrigerator for four months, or charge an iphone 30,861 times.
The money savings, ASE says, could amount to $63 a year.
Here are some tips for washing in cold water:
Use liquid detergents; generally, powders don’t dissolve as well in cold water.
If you’re using a regular detergent and aren’t satisfied with the cleanliness, switch to one specifically for cold water.
Mix the detergent with warm water before adding it to the washer to help with dispersal.
Pretreat stains. For more efficient laundering overall:
Wash only full loads of clothing.
If you must wash in warm or hot, rinse in cold.
Hang clothes to dry. If you’re allergic to pollen, hang them inside.
If you do use the dryer, clean the lint filter to aid the air flow. Also, separate lightweight items from heavier ones because lightweight ones take less time to dry.