The final countdown
The time has come
Finally, the time has come. Wrapping up my month-long DOT was easier than I expected. I no longer have to wait multiple hours for my clothes to dry. I’d say out of a lot of the other DOT projects out there, air-drying your clothes is definitely among the most tedious.
From this DOT project, I learned that even the simplest things can help make a difference in our carbon emissions.
During my DOT, I noticed habits that my family had that produced carbon dioxide and thought about how easily we could change that. I started thinking that we should always make sure we’re putting the right things into recycling and then right things into the trash. Plus, I asked my parents if we could start air drying our clothes more often. My parents are big on saving the earth, they’re just not sure how to do it and how efficient these new changes would be in a family with three kids. They decided that we would start trying to air dry our clothes more often in the summer since it’s hotter and there is more direct sunlight to radiate heat to our clothes. (Learned that in science class :P)
Speaking of science class, that was the reason I did my DOT. So, I’d like to share my data with you all. During our month of the Do One Thing project, all eighth-grade students kept their data in a google sheet that allowed them to keep track of all that was going on.
During my DOT, I saved 43.2 kWh (kilowatts per hour) of energy. This means I saved an equivalent of 33.4 lbs of coal burned, 3.4 gallons of gasoline consumed, and saved the equivalent amount of energy it would take to charge 3,895 phones. (I used this super cool website to calculate my total emissions saved) In total, I spent a whole 36 hours drying my clothes. That’s almost three whole days spent drying my clothes!
This means, assuming if everyone had my same habits and my same baseline, the District of Columbia population could save a total of 30,812,140 kWh if they air dry their clothes for a month. This means saving the equivalent of 23,820,120 pounds of coal burned, 2,451,765 gallons of gasoline burned and much more!
Though I am glad to be back to machine drying, my family and I will definitely try to continue air drying our clothes during the summer. You should too!
