Best clothes dryer ever - coming soon!

You've been told that if you want to save energy on drying clothes, then you should hang dry your laundry. Since the 1950s we've reduced the time we spend on household chores by 50%. This has freed us up to spend time numbly staring into our tablets and phones while we ignore our children. Nevertheless, solutions that take us backwards are not likely to be widely adopted. To that point, in our house the clothes pins are used for chip clips rather than clothes. So it is really up to manufacturers to design appliances to be as useful and efficient as possible.

It's estimated that clothes dryers in the United States waste $4 billion worth of energy every year!

Once again Whirlpool comes to the energy-efficient rescue with the first Energy Star rated clothes dryer. For years, I've sung the praise and potential for heat pump clothes dryers. As I wrote a while back, advanced clothes dryers have been available in Europe and Asia for many years. Now both LG and Whirlpool have wonderful machines about to heat things up in America. Check out the available Energy Star models from both manufacturers.

The EPA announced its new Energy Star label for clothes dryers on May 27. The standards go into effect in 2015 and will honor a selection of highly efficient dryers that us 20% less energy than is required by the new 2015 minimum standards.

In my net zero energy home we combine our standard electric clothes dryer with a super-efficient Whirlpool Duet (read why I want to marry it). By using the fan dry setting when we can, we lower the time in the dryer dramatically. We still use about 900 kWh per year (about $117 per year if you don't have solar panels to give you free energy).

With a heat pump clothes dryer we could reduce our energy use for drying clothes by 30-60%. That's enough energy savings to annually power our toaster, microwave, television, washing machine, and lawn mower. Or that amount of energy savings could help power our electric Chevy Volt (or other electric car) for up to 1500 miles or so!

The new Whirlpool brand Duet model WED87HED steam dryer offers unprecedented energy and performance flexibility. If you put a load in at night and don't mind a bit longer dry time, you can set it to Eco mode and optimize energy savings. If your in-laws are coming over and you need to get the laundry done quickly, you can set it to Speed mode. There is no old-school dryer that can match this kind of performance and efficiency.

Importantly, because the heat pump clothes dryers are electric, it makes it easier to unplug from your gas line and get a step closer to an all-electric home and net zero energy. Once appliances like induction cooktops, heat pump water heaters, and heat pump clothes dryers drive your energy use way down, it becomes easier to install an array of solar panels sufficient to power your entire home. Imagine owning your own power and getting free energy for life!

Now if Whirlpool can come up with a dryer that helped find missing socks . . . their engineers might deserve a Nobel Prize.

Read more about Energy Star labeled Heat Pump Clothes Dryers:

http://www.energystar.gov/products/certified-products/detail/clothes_dryers

Check out this VIDEO Review of the WED87HED: http://bcove.me/kp4ugdh1