Hang Drying Law Approved

Down with prudery. Up with the campaign to conserve energy and slow global warming. Sing the praises of the humble clothesline and roll back the rules and laws that ban hanging bloomers in the breeze.

Such are the goals of the Concord-based Project Laundry List, an organization founded by Alexander Lee when he was still a student at Vermont's Middlebury College. They are goals that New Hampshire lawmakers should embrace in the coming session when they take up a bill that would require counties, municipalities, cooperatives and residential associations to make reasonable provisions to permit residents to dry clothing outdoors.

Lee's long campaign to return the clothesline to a place of prominence in American life is drawing national attention. Earlier this month, Time magazine devoted a full page to the effort.

The article described the problems Concord octogenarian Mary Lou Sayer encountered when she tried to hang clothes outside her residence at Beaver Meadow Village, a retirement community on Second Street.

The board that governs the community turned Sayer down twice because, its chairman said, the development is backed against the woods, and laundry would have to be hung in front of the residences. Like that one, many developments built in the age of cheap energy were not designed to take advantage of free solar power. But energy, no matter what its source, can no longer be taken for granted. Old rules will have to change and new ones will have to recognize the importance of energy independence and the reality of climate change.

Drying wet laundry accounts for 6 percent of residential energy use on average. Depending on how many loads they do, households spend between $85 and $400 per year to run clothes dryers. Some families do as many as 15 loads per week. For Public Service Co. of New Hampshire customers, the average is eight. The fuel burned to heat and spin those dryers pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - 9 pounds over the life of one T-shirt according to one study - and contributes to global warming. Even more savings can be achieved by washing clothes in cold water - up to 80 percent of the cost, according to the detergent maker Tide.

Only one state, Florida, explicitly protects a citizen's right to dry. Several others offer limited protection.

Legislation proposed by Nashua Rep. Suzanne Harvey would prohibit outright bans but permit reasonable restrictions on outdoor drying to ensure safety, protect access and minimize any perceived aesthetic damage. The bill also calls on governing boards to review their bylaws at a minimum every four years so rules that no longer make sense can be changed or eliminated.

Putting up a clothesline isn't going to save the planet. But it's one small thing practically everyone can do to save energy. It's a small step that can lead to bigger ones, like the purchase of more efficient appliances and vehicles, water-saving shower heads and more home insulation. Collectively, little savings add up.

Outdoor drying, in season, has some other advantages. It's good exercise. Clothes dried outdoors last longer - think of how fast fabric that was once clothing fills a dryer's lint catcher - and clothes dried outdoors smell better. So come spring, string up a clothesline, and in the meantime, those folding drying racks of old can be used to dry towels, jeans and other items that, in a dryer, are energy hogs.