About 5.8 percent of residential electricty use goes towards the clothes dryer, according to DOE EIA statistics from 2001.

If Americans would use the clothesline or wooden drying racks, the savings would be enough to close several power plants.

The 5.8% of residential electricity use number is way off as a measure of energy used by drying clothes in an appliance. It does not take into account the millions of Americans who do their wash at commercial Laundromats and multi-family housing locations.

Furthermore, sixteen percent of American households use gas dryers. EIA does not keep statistics on the energy used by these machines, nor do they track--or have a way to track--energy used by laundry facilities at commercial establishments. Millions of Americans wash or have their clothes washed at commercial sector locations--universities, prisons, nursing homes, hopsitals, restaurants, fish piers, and hotels, for example.

Finally, it is important to remember, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." The percentage of electricty used to dry is much higher in the median American household than in the mean or average household, because most people do not heat their homes and hot water with electricity and the average is skewed by those who use large amounts of energy in the home.