If you need to use a clothes drier regularly, here are some efficiency tips that will help reduce environmental impact and save you money.

1. Clean your lint filter regularly. A clogged-up lint filter can extend the drying time (and therefore boost energy use) by a massive 30 percent!

2. Ensure your dryer isn’t overloaded. Air needs to circulate easily between the clothes in order for drying to be most effective.

3. Open a window when using the dryer. A closed-up laundry gets very humid and that humid air just gets sucked into the dryer; decreasing its effectiveness.

4. Heavier items should be dried separately to lightweight clothes.

5. Many modern clothes dryers have a cool-down cycle which allows the clothes to complete drying with the remaining heat in the dryer

6. Ensure you use the fastest spin cycle possible in your washing machine – the wetter the clothes, the longer they’ll take to dry.

7. If your dryer is used a great deal, try and coordinate the timing so that loads quickly follow each other to take advantage of residual heat.

8. If you have a solar power system connected to a net feed-in tariff as we have here on the Gold Coast it will be of extra benefit to you if you try and use your clothes drier outside the hours of 9am to 3pm. This is due to the fact that clothes driers consume a lot of power; if you do run it during the peak daylight hours of 9am to 3pm you will be losing surplus solar power that you could be selling back to the power grid at a higher rate.