Squirrels cause energy loss of $60/year.
This is kind of funny, but I stumbled across a way to save about $60 per year in electricity, and the loss was being caused by squirrels.
When we moved into our house, there was an old dryer that used to take a long time to dry. It finally died last fall, and then we had it replaced with a new one. The new one was not much better, but it was just a basic model and we did not think much about it. Today I decided to go out and check in the exhaust, and it seemed to be very low. I also noticed a hole in the exhaust hose.
I took down the exhaust hose, and a brown hard stone fell out. When I undid it some more, several more fell out, and then when I hit the hose, the floor was covered with them. It looks like the stones were actually pine cones, and I am guessing that one of the squirrels in the back yard has been using the hose to store his food.
I replaced the hose with a new one, and I am going to put a cage over the vent. Our clothes now dry in half the time, which is great.
The sticker on the dryer says that it consumes on average 900kWh per year. We are probably on the high side, so lets say 1000kWh. Since each load was taking twice as long, we were probably consuming 2000kWh per year. At $0.06 per kWh this works out to a saving of $60 per year.
The new hose and screen cost about $15, so I will have a payback of 3 months. Not a bad way to kick of my energy saving plan.
Tags: dryer, electricity, energy saving, squirrels