One of the most interesting points of using ozone to do laundry at home is the fact that it can really save you a lot of money. We use general numbers on our home page, but we thought it would be useful to show the range of savings people can enjoy. Keep in mind that there are many factors to the cost of laundry, and this blog entry tries to show more of the possibilities.
Bottom line: using ozone to clean your laundry at home means no longer using warm or hot water, and no longer using soap. So let's take a look at the item that fluctuates a lot: heating water. We'll look to this site to make our calculations.
Since soap works best only if you wash with warm or hot water, we're going to assume you're washing at least with warm water in every instance, and we'll show the range of warm to hot loads.
The Cost of Hot Water for Laundry
If you use gas to heat your water, it's going to cost you a lot less. The average price of natural gas in the U.S., delivered to your home, is $1/therm. For a front-load washer at this rate, you'll pay 5-8 cents per load MORE than if you used cold water.
For a top-load washer, you'll pay 9-14 cents more per load.
Electricity rates vary widely across the United States. Excluding the high rates of Hawaii (about 33 cents per kWh), rates are about 8 to 20 cents per kWh.
At 8 cents, a front-load washer will cost 8-13 cents more per load than using cold water.
At 8 cents, a top-load washer will cost 13-21 cents more.
At 20 cents, a front-load washer will cost 20-32 cents more per load than using cold water.
At 20 cents, a top-load washer will cost 33-52 cents more.
Now you can see why there is such a massive range of potential savings when moving to an ozone laundry system. The average American family does about 400 loads of laundry per year. So you can see that warm/hot water savings are anywhere from $20/year up to $200/year!
At average electric rates, savings are 10 to 30 cents depending on the type of washer and the number of hot and warm loads. So if we go out on a limb, we could probably say that average savings with gas heat are around $40/year and savings with electric heat are around $80 year with many variations possible.
The Cost of Soap or Detergent for Laundry
Soap costs are much easier to figure out, but they vary just as much, if not more. You see people talking about homemade soap for 2 to 5 cents per load. And you see people talking about needing more soap for dirty loads, driving prices from 50 cents to $1.50 per load for brand name soaps.
Realistically, most people won't make their own soaps, and few people need to use tons of soap for extra dirty loads. However, based on this article, we think it fair to say that reasonable costs range from 6-24 cents per load. At 400 loads of laundry per year, this cost will be $24-$96/year.
Total Savings of Doing Laundry with Ozone
When you take the savings of both warm/hot water and soap, you can see that on the VERY LOW END, your annual savings (at 400 loads per year) could be as little as $44. On the absolute high end, your savings could be as much as $296! Using the middle ground on the costs of soap and hot water usage, we think it's fair to say (as we claim on our home page) that the average family will save between $90 and $150 per year.
Remember that someone living alone will save far less with fewer loads of laundry, and a large family could save quite a bit more.
Bottom line: using ozone to clean your laundry at home means no longer using warm or hot water, and no longer using soap. So let's take a look at the item that fluctuates a lot: heating water. We'll look to this site to make our calculations.
Since soap works best only if you wash with warm or hot water, we're going to assume you're washing at least with warm water in every instance, and we'll show the range of warm to hot loads.
The Cost of Hot Water for Laundry
If you use gas to heat your water, it's going to cost you a lot less. The average price of natural gas in the U.S., delivered to your home, is $1/therm. For a front-load washer at this rate, you'll pay 5-8 cents per load MORE than if you used cold water.
For a top-load washer, you'll pay 9-14 cents more per load.
Electricity rates vary widely across the United States. Excluding the high rates of Hawaii (about 33 cents per kWh), rates are about 8 to 20 cents per kWh.
At 8 cents, a front-load washer will cost 8-13 cents more per load than using cold water.
At 8 cents, a top-load washer will cost 13-21 cents more.
At 20 cents, a front-load washer will cost 20-32 cents more per load than using cold water.
At 20 cents, a top-load washer will cost 33-52 cents more.
Now you can see why there is such a massive range of potential savings when moving to an ozone laundry system. The average American family does about 400 loads of laundry per year. So you can see that warm/hot water savings are anywhere from $20/year up to $200/year!
At average electric rates, savings are 10 to 30 cents depending on the type of washer and the number of hot and warm loads. So if we go out on a limb, we could probably say that average savings with gas heat are around $40/year and savings with electric heat are around $80 year with many variations possible.
The Cost of Soap or Detergent for Laundry
Soap costs are much easier to figure out, but they vary just as much, if not more. You see people talking about homemade soap for 2 to 5 cents per load. And you see people talking about needing more soap for dirty loads, driving prices from 50 cents to $1.50 per load for brand name soaps.
Realistically, most people won't make their own soaps, and few people need to use tons of soap for extra dirty loads. However, based on this article, we think it fair to say that reasonable costs range from 6-24 cents per load. At 400 loads of laundry per year, this cost will be $24-$96/year.
Total Savings of Doing Laundry with Ozone
When you take the savings of both warm/hot water and soap, you can see that on the VERY LOW END, your annual savings (at 400 loads per year) could be as little as $44. On the absolute high end, your savings could be as much as $296! Using the middle ground on the costs of soap and hot water usage, we think it's fair to say (as we claim on our home page) that the average family will save between $90 and $150 per year.
Remember that someone living alone will save far less with fewer loads of laundry, and a large family could save quite a bit more.
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