How much energy could be saved if we didn't iron our clothes?

Any chance of an investigation on ironing and energy use? If we didn't iron for a month, how much power would it save?

Snarlygog, via comment thread

Is there anything more mundane and tedious than ironing clothes? It's hard to think of anything. Yet, most of us accumulatively spend quite a few hours each month leaning over an ironing board.

So here's a rather attractive thought experiment: imagine if we all decided to make the leap and collectively never iron again. We'd rise up and end the tyranny together!

OK, that's unlikely ever to happen. But would it even make that much difference in terms of saving electricity and, therefore, money?

This US Department of Energy webpage has a handy formula for estimating the energy use of various household appliances, including the iron.

(Wattage × Hours Used Per Day) ÷ 1000 = Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption

NB: 1 kilowatt (kW) = 1,000 Watts

Multiply this by the number of days you use the appliance during the year for the annual consumption. You can then calculate the annual cost to run an appliance by multiplying the kWh per year by your local utility's rate per kWh consumed.

If you know the wattage of your iron (they seem to range between 1kW and 3kW), the price of your electricity (£0.13 per kWh is, roughly, the UK average), and how long you spend in hours ironing each day/month/year, it should be possible to calculate how much money and electricity you "waste" each year ironing.

This column is an experiment in crowd-sourcing a reader's question, so please let us know your own views and experiences below (as opposed to emailing them). Would you, for example, be happy to give up ironing to save energy? What are your tips for reducing needless ironing? Are "iron-free" clothes and "crease-free" washing machine settings really as good as they claim?

I will join in with some of my own thoughts and reactions as the debate progresses. I will also be inviting various interested parties to join the debate too.