Solar Clothes Dryer ?

bill nye_3

My wife wants a solar clothes dryer. I put it off for too long. My excuse was that I was doing research. I looked in my customers back yards, I asked my brother, my cousin, my neighbor, and co-workers. I searched the internet and even tried to find some of those old Hippie magazines from the 70's.

My electric bill is too high, everytime I bi--h about all of the lights that get left on, the clothes line subject gets thrown in my face.

I wanted to go from the back step to the garage with pulleys ( most practical and efficient in my opinion) but she vetoed that.

Any experts? not so experts?.................
This may have to go down tomorrow.
How may feet between poles? 20? What is the best quality rope? Stretch proof, rot proof? How deep to bury the poles?North -South, East-West ?

I have 42' of 1-1/4" galvanized sched. 40, thinking of using that? Any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated, I only want to do this once. I know this may not be a DIY project but I could not find a professional in my area. I do have experience with a shovel, I used to be a plumber.

nicholas bonham-carter

clothesline

your clothes will have never felt better, than when dried on a line. i would always use plastic coated cable so you can pin the sheets to it, without rust staining. maybe the pipe could be the end frames. about shoulder height, or high enough to mow under, would be about right i think. 2 cables wide by about 30 ft. should give you enough capacity, unless there are many people in your house, and all the sheets get washed at the same time. put clips on the ends of the cables to make it easier to dismount them when needed. as you probably know it works in the winter too! later on you can do the pulley thing, which would be more practical.--nbc

Unknown

use dark sheets

That way u'll know to wash it again when seeing bird droppings on them...

hot_rod

Amish clothsline

when touring around the NAOHSM show in PA a few years back... I saw the pulley deals the Amish use. John Vastyan sent me a nice kit. Two large pulleys with ball bearings, plastic coated cable, and a ratchet tensioner for the cable. I have it between the house and well house. Holds a lot of weight and rolls nicely. Looks to be from somewhere in Lancaster county??

hr

bill nye_3

bird decoy

I just have to wash and wax my car and park it outside, the birds will leave the clothes alone. I Know !

Unknown

Goggle "outside clothes dryers" for more options. If your looking for a regular clothes line, use 5/32 plastic covered wire. Also google "clothespins" and "clothes line spreaders".

Modern heated tumble dryers are great but nothing really beats the smell /feel of sun/wind dried clothes.

- Rod

scott markle_2

steve baer

" it is very important to examine
what the limits of an accounting system are- to know
what the numbers and quantities displayed really mean."

check this essay on "solar clothes drying"

http://taxshine.com/Clothesline.html

Jamie Hall

On the other hand

I use plain old cotton clothes line, and clothes pins. Quarter inch diameter, more or less. Stuff is ridiculously cheap, and available in pretty much any hardware store, and when it gets dirty (it will) I get rid of it or use it for something else and buy new.

My own setup is from a second floor porch to an outbuilding, on pulleys. Works fine.

Then there are sort of whirl-a-gig gadgets with multiple lines on them which fit into a pipe sleeve in the ground and which you can set up and get take down easily; can't think where I've seen them lately... Vermont Country Store, maybe?

Would you believe, though, that there are places where the local zoning may prohibit outside clothes lines? Egad...