To not have known this about tumble dryers? (Fuel bill related)

[HinchcliffeandMurgatroyd]

Not terribly exciting subject , sorry. I’m quite excited about possibly saving £££s though.

I’ve just worked out that my (fairly new) condenser tumble dryer costs about £1.25 a cycle to run, despite the fact I’m on a less-bad fixed rate.

A good heat pump dryer would apparently cost ~50p per cycle.

So £500 now for a better machine would pay for itself in 10-24 months. Tempted.

I knew there was a difference but thought it was a small difference. It took me 15 minutes tracking down the performance data and doing the maths to come up with those numbers.

I use mine a lot due to dogs, dodgy spine etc. So that’s potentially a massive saving.

Did everyone else know the difference between condenser and heat pump dryers was so dramatic?

YANBU = I had no idea.
YABU = Doh, it’s common knowledge.

My dehumidifier has a laundry setting and you put it next to an airer, only takes a couple of hours to dry and DOES pump out warm air too

It also pumps out cooled air at the same time.

Really, what’s best depends on your housing situation as well.

This is definitely true.

I have a long standing aversion to tumble dryers on the grounds of energy use (climate concern) and cost. I accept that my assumptions about them may be out of date, especially when considering the heat pump option. Still better not to use energy if you don’t need to, though.

We moved a year ago to a new build which has a built-in tumble dryer, which I have used all of three times just to finish something off when we were running out of space/time.

The vast majority of the time, we either dry outside, or over airers in the kitchen. However:

1. there is plenty of space in the kitchen;
2. it has underfloor heating, so there’s constant low-level warmth rising in winter
3. the house has a positive input ventilation system, so there is a constant trickle of air coming in (and therefore out), which prevents the build up of moisture.

So it dries well on the airer and doesn’t cause condensation or inconvenience. Therefore no incentive to use a TD and every reason not to.

If it did break (how would I know?) I probably wouldn’t bother replacing it.

It also pumps out cooled air at the same time.

Ignore that. Thinking about it, it will give off some heat.

I have a heat pump tumble dryer that is A or A+ rated. I have solar panels and if I use it during daylight hours it costs us absolutely nothing at all. It was considerably more expensive, and it does take a lot longer to dry things, but we think it is worth it.

By the same token a quicker condensing appliance using more energy would have cost you less to buy, but still run free on sunny days, and in theory save you more money.

The kw load is quite static and overall quite low (our dryer is A++) so even with ordinary levels of sunlight it is free. Our old condenser dryer had a lot of peaks and troughs and baseload was higher so if the sun went it we had to import from the grid. I really have found a massive difference in running costs and it is effectively free. Drying time is longer than the condenser but I pair it with the eco setting in the washing machine which takes about the same amount of time.

We have solar panels. The problem is that they produce most energy on sunny days, when you can dry clothes outside anyway. We are most likely to need the tumble drier when it is cold and wet and grey, when the solar panels aren't generating much energy.

I've got a heat pump dryer (but about 7 years old) and our bills went down when we got it because I wasn't having to have the heating on more than I needed just to get clothes dry.

It did used to take hours and hours to dry but we took it completely apart and got rid of all of the lint - much faster. But, the bastard door is now not closing properly so it cuts out. Not been a problem over summer but need to get it fixed for winter.

Oh yeah, the lint, I read a post on here once about a repair person telling a MNetter to lightly brush over washing up liquid to pick up the micro lint you can can’t see on the filters. About 2 years in I thought mine was on the decline, but I did that and have been doing it regularly since, and wiping down the insides I can reach and back to drying normally.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least!

Wish I'd known about this before

I can confirm this is true! To get our new AEG heat pump dryer to dry at anywhere near the speed of the old condenser we have to set it to the non-green highest setting and it still takes over 2h

You can get damp from allsorts! Leaking gutter, small slip in a roof tile

@Anycrispsleft numerous examples of the opposite on this thread, except from the people who put theirs in the outhouses/garages, because heat pumped ones are not suitable for outdoor temperatures, either too cold or too hot. Is yours in the main part of the house?

Ditto

Yes I know, but we were specifically talking about damp caused by condensation and the #1 cause of that is drying wet clothes indoors.

Why oh why are you washing so much?!
I also have a family of 5. I do 3 - 4 loads a week!

Is the Lakeland hooded dryer comparable price wise?

barbara yy, no where should stop people hanging laundry outside.

I know there is a big difference snug only because I have a heat pump dryer. I use it alot too having a child with disabilities so it’s on for a few hours a day.

Heat pumps don’t take 8 hours to dry. When I put mine on it says 3hrs but it adjusts according to the load as it has a sensor so probably takes an hour.

Yep. I can confirm that my old fashioned tumble dryer is costing me fuck all to run on sunny days.

I watch our smart meter in the morning and go 'quick get the dishwasher / washing machine / tumble dryer on like a maniac now.

I think i will all start oven cooking during the day and then shoving stuff in the microwave to warm up in the evening, especially if it looks like we are going to get brown outs this winter.

We didn't get a battery for for solar panels as the numbers didn't work. I am wondering if we live to regret this.

I wonder where the bans on hanging out the washing came from, is it from puritan America where someone was scandalised by their neighbour's knickers and bra hanging out?
I understand banning ugly air conditioning units on the fabric of buildings(I'm not against air-conditioning, it's just it should be achieved in a more aesthetically pleasing way), but lines of washing - people are charmed by them in Mediterranean countries, but here they are somehow a blight?
People really shouldn't just put up with it, it is something that should be consistently contested by anyone who is discriminated in such a way.

YABU

Tumble dryers are notoriously expensive to run. Environmentally and economically costly. I'm always amazed at how many people routinely dry all their laundry in a tumble dryer. The dryer function on my washer dryer is used in emergencies only.

I have a heat pump dryer and didn’t know this!! Mine doesn’t take 8 hours to dry a load though as others have put forward. It takes the same time as our old dryer, which was horrendously expensive to run.