Ironing clothes is no doubt contributing to your swelling energy bill, but social norms dictate that we iron what we wear. It’s simply taboo to walk around in wrinkled garments. The good news is that you can always switch on a 220-volt iron that is designed to be power saving.
Your options include a steam iron that uses 20% less energy. The very best manufacturers have recently released steam irons that allow you to remove creases thoroughly with 100% steam power while automatically saving 20% energy by eliminating steam. Often marketed as ‘automatic energy saving’ steam irons, these appliances not only help lower your energy bills—they can also help you finish the task of ironing much faster, so you can enjoy your weekends.
Another one of your options is to buy an electric iron with an ‘automatic temperature cutoff’ feature. Most of themodern electric 220-volt irons in the market today have this feature, so consider upgrading to a new one if you are still using your old, power-hungry iron. This energy saving control feature makes the iron switch off automatically if it remains unused for a certain amount of time (usually 10 minutes). This feature therefore only saves you money but is also fantastic from a safety perspective.
To save even more money, turn off your iron when you are down to your last one or two garments. The residual heat should be enough to iron the remaining clothes. It also makes sense to be strategic. Iron heavier clothing (like denims) ahead of the rest because you will need to set the control to the highest level of heat. Then, switch to medium heat to iron medium-weight clothes (such as wools and cottons), Finally, clothes made of light fabrics that require less heat (such as silk and rayon) can be ironed last on low heat, or using the leftover residual heat.
