You may be asking yourself what the best time of day to do laundry is in order to save money. A one-time look at your electricity bill can give you the answer, but the answer varies from utility to utility, season to season, and region to region. You might see “time-of-use” rates with lower “off-peak” charges and higher “on-peak” charges. The worst times of the day to do your laundry is on-peak times, when electricity rates are highest. That’s often workday evenings. Weekends are off-peak all day, but a lot depends on the season and the region of the country. Think about your weekday evening routine. You might have turned on the lights and air conditioning, opened the refrigerator a number of times, cooked on your stove, and then sat down to watch your favorite TV show. Maybe you plugged in your phone to charge, maybe even an electric vehicle — you and almost everybody else. These are peak times when your utility company has to fire up expensive “peaker” power plants to generate more electric to supply all those customers, and they’re likely to charge you more for it. It doesn’t matter if your dryer runs on 110 or 220 volts, these are not good times to add laundry to your energy demands. There’s one rule of thumb when it comes to laundry: When in doubt, do it on the weekend.
