Yatter Matters

Green Frontier

Going Green is a new frontier. Finding older apartments in Vancouver’s real estate inventory with in-suite laundry is another. Recent years have seen developers incorporating this feature into their buildings. In older units, it is still a common experience to find laundry rooms shared by the entire building. Busy lives have made common laundry rooms inconvenient. Having to do your laundry only on scheduled days or ensuring that you always have correct change to feed the machines is a great deterrent to many potential buyers and an on-going sore point for current owners.

Not Allowed

Another problem associated with older buildings is being able to properly install an in-suite system. Connecting water lines and discharge systems plus dryer venting are usually impossible. Rarely does building management allow plumbing of both discharge and water feed lines. Getting permission to cut a hole in the building’s exterior wall to vent the dryer is very unlikely.

Rescue Plan

To the rescue comes laundry systems developed in Europe. These units consume less water and electricity to operate and dry clothing. The bonus to these machines is that no overt plumbing or venting is required.

Energy Saving High

This will vary, depending on the size of the machine and the load. The condensing dryer saves an enormous amount of electrical energy by returning the already warm air to the drum, requiring only a few degrees bump in temperature, instead of heating room temperature air to the level needed to dry the clothes. Conventional dryers exhaust 200 cubic feet of air per minute from the residence, condensing dryers do not. This is 10,000 cubic feet per cycle that does not need to be heated or cooled to room temperature, an enormous saving in not only residential utility costs, but in the stress placed on the air intake systems of the building. Water usage is even more efficient: full-sized front loaders use only about 16 gallons per wash cycle, compared to over 30 gallons for conventional top-loading machines.

Courtesy Creative Laundry

Green Machines that Clean

Who makes Green Laundry machines?

Asko Meile LG Note: the LG link is to an American distributor. LG’s site does not appear to provide a similar product line in Canada.

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