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No not robot wars but since I know stw’ers have a penchant for dehumidifiers I wondered if anybody had done the maths for using a tumble dryer vs airer and dehumidifier for drying washing.
We have the latter but it sits chugging away quite a lot and at 200w or so feels like it might not necessarily be lower energy consumption than a condensing drier. The former also feels like it will be a lot less effort.
I’ve never had a condensing dryer so know nothing about them.
Me sir ,me sir.
I can answer this one.
6 loads of washing. Dehumidifier left on 16 hours. 4.2 kw used and washing dry.
To be fair I have no idea about tumble driers.
A+++ driers have an annual expected usage of 170-200kWh based on 160 cycles. For 6 loads of washing (as per @zippykona) that would be about 7 kWh.
Handy hint. Use both a dehumidifier and a humidifier loaded with urine so that your house and clothes smell of stale piss.
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1487510074901688323
Zippyk wow that is good going there! I think I have much to learn here. I’m not sure we get anywhere near that speed of drying to be able to do 6 loads in a day. The items in the exhaust of the dehumidifier dry very quickly but the other stuff still takes a little while.
Combo condensing dryer.
Load in, dry stuff out.
Have both. No contest.
We use a heated drying rack (Lakeland), with a dehumidifier turned on for a hour or so to kickstart it and to help with waterproofs etc.
No idea of the cost but we dry enough clothes for a family of four with no problems.
We have both!
The condensing tumbler lives in the workshop and mainly does towels / linen when it's too damp to stick it on the line.
Everthing else goes in the back bedroom with the dehumidifier on (or the line if it's dry). All my T shirts have graphics on them, so I don't want them getting too hot in the dryer etc.
The Condensor is much quicker, can do a full load in a few hours (to bone dry). The dehumidifier takes maybe 3x as long. Can't say I notice either on the bills, but I suspect the condensor is a bit cheaper to run.
We have both, we use a blend, other then towels, we will try to dry most things with the central heating and/or dehumidifier or if out of space or we have a lot of washing we'll use the dryer.
No idea of energy costs, but don't underestimate the wear and tear clothes suffer in a tumble dryer. All that fluff comes from somewhere!
FWIW, I very occasionally dry clothes with a dehumidifier in my utility room. I'm amazed how quickly it dries them, even on it's lowest setting.
We have just got a condensing drier in a small utility room and the heat it kicks out is bonkers so I am now trying to devise a way of being able to put more clothes in there to take advantage of all that heat.
Well, if this is the drying clothes top-tips thread, I often put our airer next to the radiator with all the stuff on, and then put an old mattress protector over the whole lot, tucked down the back of the radiator. It hot-boxes to a really quite surprising degree, and dries stuff really well (even stuff like jeans that can be a bit of a bugger to dry).
We have just got a condensing drier in a small utility room and the heat it kicks out is bonkers so I am now trying to devise a way of being able to put more clothes in there to take advantage of all that heat.
I think the hot air coming out will be moist so might actually make the clothes damp and give them a musty smell.
Well, if this is the drying clothes top-tips thread, I often put our airer next to the radiator with all the stuff on, and then put an old mattress protector over the whole lot, tucked down the back of the radiator. It hot-boxes to a really quite surprising degree, and dries stuff really well (even stuff like jeans that can be a bit of a bugger to dry).
Saw this doing the rounds on social media over the weekend, will give it a go this week
I think the hot air coming out will be moist so might actually make the clothes damp and give them a musty smell.
It isn't moist - there is never any hint of condensation on the window that's right next to the drier (which I assume would be the case if it was)?
Well, if this is the drying clothes top-tips thread, I often put our airer next to the radiator with all the stuff on, and then put an old mattress protector over the whole lot, tucked down the back of the radiator. It hot-boxes to a really quite surprising degree, and dries stuff really well (even stuff like jeans that can be a bit of a bugger to dry).
This is basically an airing cupboard...
Ours has the HW tank, CH pump etc, so is always warm and gets warmer when the CH is on.
I guess it's quite a complicated calculation. Depends on how warm/humid your house is to start with?
Modern heat pump condensing driers are very efficient, I'd surprised if the dehumidifer was better.
We'll soon find out though as we've just swapped to a heat pump dryer.
For us though, it just saves the faff of hanging everything out.
Our next house I want a trombe wall with solar fans and proper drying room area it feeds into. #problemsolved
For those using dehumidifier, doesn’t it take a long time + do clothes end up like cardboard because they are not being agitated?
It isn’t moist – there is never any hint of condensation on the window that’s right next to the drier (which I assume would be the case if it was)?
I have the reverse, the drier on a colder day when running will condensate the windows in the little room its in.
We have both and the dehumidifier wins on account of the damage to clothes. It was just as much faff sorting out the stuff that can/can't be tumble dried as it is just hanging stuff up.
I tried to figure out some sums on whether the dehumidifier reduces the energy needed to heat the house and it gave me a headache. I think the drier air in the house should be easier to heat though (or should be more comfortable for a given temp at least).
This is basically an airing cupboard…
Yeah, kinda, but significantly hotter, it gets reeallly toasty in there.