I hang my laundry in the cold basement.   It generally takes about 24 hours for it to dry.   I hang it all in the morning, and take them down the next morning.

 

Here at our house, we all only take 10 minute showers and set a timer for those who "lose track of time".    

 

I would also think about making things in a crock pot, using a turkey roaster to bake in, or a toaster oven.

I USED to think having those countertop appliances were a waste but I've been using a convection toaster oven, steamer and crock pots over my stove/oven and found I can create complete meals without firing up the stove. Actually experimented and cooked ziti in a vegetable steamer. It took a little longer but it was good. I wonder if you could get by with using an electric one burner coil for things like boiling water. As far as drying the clothes, that is a challenge. I would try to hang as many clothes as possible on hangers upstairs at night where room temp. would be warmer than the basement and it would add some humidity to the dry fall/winter air. The previous owner of our home had spring loaded closet bars in most of the doorways so she could hang her clothes to dry.

 I use drying racks and hangers...during the summer I hang outside....then in the winter time I hang it in our basement...the basement is heated and the moisture is really needed in the winter....in the summer I use my small appliances to cook...I have a convection oven, microwave, toaster oven, crock pots, elec skillet, and a electric coil burner to use....I put them all in my attached garage, which is only a few steps from my kitchen....no heat in the house that way making the AC run more....

• when i had an all-electric house (ouch!)  and 3 shower-obsessed teenagers (more ouch!) i put the hot water heater on a timer.  1 hour in the morning, 1 hour in the evening.  otherwise it was off. after a few fights, they worked out a schedule, and life went on.

There is a product from Rinnai that is a tankless gas water heater. At our old house I had looked into it (our house now is electric). It costs more up front, I think it was $2,000. But it was small and it heated the water that was used right away as opposed to the traditional tank that heats all day. It heats up to 240 gallons per hour if you needed it to. I like the size of it because it's slightly larger than my computer screen. They have a web site.

my husband installs them alot in new construction. there is another brand as well, but there was some reason that dh was against them....I can't recall why right now. I'll have to as him.

I, too, was going to suggest a timer for the water heater.  If you can convert everyone to showers around the same time each day, run your dishwasher or handwash dishes after showers, etc., you could have hot water from, say, 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily.  The rest of the time you could just heat smaller amounts for a cup of hot tea or whatever on the stove or in the microwave.  Just wash your hands fast after using the bathroom or use sanitizer when the water is too cold!  LOL

As for tankless water heaters, do a search on the DS forums.  I could have sworn someone posted an article where there was an actual analysis that said tankless heaters actually cost more and there were a whole bunch of factors for why.

 I started out at the beginning of summer stringing up a clothes line outside.  After much fooling around and putting it here and there, I came up with two places to hook it up.  When summer is here, we have a small AG pool and the clothesline needs to be rerouted.  Since I have one old original pole, I used that and found the old hole with the pipe in it cut off at ground level.  I went and bought a large galvanized pipe and strung up my pulley clothline and ran it to the old pole.  Works perfect and keeps the clothes out of the pool in the summer.  I also bought another galvanized pole (tying it to the deck with those zip ties) for the deck and used those s hooks to hook the pulley system to the other galvanized pole and so now I can just step out on the deck and hang the clothes up.  Even with it starting to get cold, I get plenty of breeze and sun and hanging out my clothes is a big plus.  If the weather stinks, I can still use the dryer, or just hang the clothes up on hangers in the laundry room, which gets afternoon sun and the clothes dry fairly quick since the front loader spins them practically dry anyways.  I saved no less than $20 a month just skipping the dryer and my clothes are fresh and smell wonderful, minus the dryer sheets, so another expense I don't need to do!  If I need to have something not so crispy clean, I can throw it in the dryer for a few spins and then hang it out.  It seems to break up that stiffness that comes with air dried fabrics.  Since the laundry room if right off the deck, this has saved me plenty of money, and steps too.  When hanging out clothes, if its nice out, the clothes are dry at one end while I am still hanging at the other.   

we filled our propane tanks in the spring at a locked in price $2.56 we have one large tank for house to heat and for the hot water tanks  the other tank for the whole house generator ,  we also have fireplaces in the house ..so most of our heat is from wood ..

I hang my clothes on a cloth line have two in the basement  and one of those eight sided things and a couple of regular lines ..  everything smell so good

in bad I use racks or last resort use the dryer .