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.

Ive just bought our first ever tumble drier (kitchen extension so now have room for one!) and I bought a heat pump one but only because I was researching them on Which? although I didn't know the difference was so large.

It's possible I'm not comparing the right models but my condenser dryer takes 2.8kwh to dry a full load. Approx £1.67 once the cap goes up.

Looking at a BOSCH serie 4, it quotes 1.8kwh for a full load dry. Approx. £1.07 at the Oct 22 prices.

We dry very little - maybe twice a week at a push - so at that rate I think it'll take us 8 years to break even if I pay £500 for one

I had a Panasonic heat pump dryer that was a Which Best Buy. It broke after 2 years and couldn’t be repaired as it would need a part from Panasonic that they couldn’t supply. So not eco friendly or economical.

Sh*t!

We bought a new condenser dryer about 3 months before 1st lockdown . . .

Not true at all, they dry very quickly.

Well I’m paying considerably less for my electricity than you ( sorry). I expect anyone who is now on a variable fuel tariff is probably paying £2+ for a cycle on an old to average condenser dryer.

But yes, the difference in my models was a bit more marked too.

Ours made the cat grow another leg and the fairies in the towel cupboard all moved out.

I don't want to doubt your maths, OP - but a 75p saving per cycle would take 666 cycles to break even on £500.

Over 24 months, that's 27 loads per month - almost one a day.

Over 10 months, that's just over 2 loads per day.

Which you may well do, but I wanted to call it out in case that's not what you were expecting?

We don't have a tumble dryer but do have a clothes spinner - it gets far more water out of a load of washing than the fastest spin cycle on the washing machine. A load of washing then dries overnight on a laundry rack without a lot of excess moisture going into the house, or it can be hung out in winter I can usually get a load dry on a short winter day.

Don't dehumidifiers just make clothes crispy?

I am reading this because I always wanted a drier but never had a spot for one.

We do have a dehumidifier but its small, like 1/6 of a dryer size i'd say. It was more £100 ish.

I don't think washer dryers are heat pump. Only standalone ones. They tend to be condenser type.

I agree about the ambient temperature info - this was something I came across randomly, it wasn't made clear anywhere in the more obvious places. They are no more efficient than a normal condenser when used in unheated rooms, so you might as well get a condenser or vented.

I love the idea of the Things That Are No Longer True website! There is a useful one called Gapminder which is like this as they talk about the gap between what we learned at school (which is often out of date even when we learn it, because it takes so long for textbooks to be written and printed and schools are often using the same books for 15-20 years anyway) but that's more for worldwide level facts than everyday things.

The heat pump drier costs less per hour to run, but takes 2-3 times longer to dry clothes... Consequently I'm not convinced it's actually energy saving.

This is a misunderstanding of how energy costs work for devices like this. The faster ones are generally using a LOT of energy to get the job done fast. That's expensive and it's harsher on your clothes. The slower ones use less electricity overall, but the amount they use isn't consistent throughout the cycle, so the per hour cost is less of a useful figure. What you should really compare is cost/power usage per load, which is generally given on the energy label or in the manual or manufacturer's website these days.

Heat pump dryers operate at a lower temperature than the old style ones (mine doesn't even have heat settings) so they are gentler on clothes and I have got away with putting loads of stuff in that says no tumble dry. Sometimes it fades the kind of PVC sticker type pictures, though, so be careful with those, but it starts slowly so I just stop putting things in if I see any white around the edges of those. Tends to be cheap/nasty quality stuff that it goes for. You don't get them in the UK but supermarket character clothes here are really naff and it wrecks them. However even Primark things have mostly been fine.

People told me the dry towel trick when I first got mine, but I thought perhaps that was more for older models and didn't try it. Now I'm used to how long it takes, I think I'll try it out and see if it makes any difference.

Well I’m paying considerably less for my electricity than you ( sorry)

No worries - I'm not paying that (yet!). I was using the projected October prices to calculate because I got quite excited thinking I'd found the perfect reason to get a new dryer and make drying cheaper.

But the maths don't add up - for me.

All power to you (pun intended ) if they work for you.

I did read up that heat pump dryer are more eco friendly and cheaper so based on those I went and brought my first heat pump dryer and I use it quite often

I have a heat pump dryer - it takes ages to dry!

Yes sorry that was a typo, it was supposed to say 18-24 months and I do have it in most days because we produce a lot of laundry and I can’t physically hang out washing any more. So maybe only big families and other high use people will use a dryer as much as I do.

OTOH, my electricity is still not as high as the cap, so somewhat lighter use on a variable electricity tariff will be as expensive.

Yes heated airers are also energy efficient if you have the room for them.

Most Lakeland heated airers use 0.3 KWh, so to dry two loads you’re using 1.2 Kwhs of energy. Interestingly as the electricity tariff is now running at 29.63p per kWh, it now probably costs around 9p per hour to run.

BUT you are putting tons of moisture in the air that then condenses indoors somewhere. So while you may save energy on drying the clothes, you may not have a net energy savings if you have to also run a dehumidifier or have to crack a window(causing higher heating energy usage) to prevent condensation damp & mould.

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

I've never had a tumble dryer. My kids are in their twenties now so I've been through the big wash loads stage of life. I've always dried clothes outside or on an indoor clothes horse. Looks like I've saved a fortune!!!

It's definately good info for those looking to buy a dryer.

If I needed one (vs just replacing an existing one I am not too keen on) then heat pump is the way to go, it seems.

Ah sorry to get your hopes up. I think because I bought a very basic condenser (in a panic) last time, I ended up with worse efficiency than some condenser users with similarly newish machines have.

These are really mixed MN reviews. I might need to subscribe to which again.

Can I just offer a bit of advice to anyone thinking of buying a new dryer. We had a bad house fire 3 weeks ago because of a condenser drier. So I think heat pump is prob the better option. Also th better the energy rating it has the better. Also go for a B or an A. Ours was an Indesit and set the whole laundry room on fire. Thousands worth of damage to the back of our house. Fireman said always best to have it in an outside shed away from the house. They are the main cause of house fires. I am really reluctant to even get a newone.

Where you in the house at the time? That's awful!

In addition my heat pump dryer also pumps out dry warm air and so is a passive heat source bonus…can’t say that about a dehumidifier.

Eh? Pumping out dry warm air is exactly what a dehumidifier does! Warms a room up nicely.

Also don't understand the comments about them being huge and taking up space. Mine is small and gets shoved in the bottom of the wardrobe when not in use.

I too have read that drier air makes the house easier to heat. The theory is that in order to raise the temperature in your house you have to heat all the water vapour in the air as well as the air/walls/furnishings, etc. Because water has a high specific heat capacity, it takes significantly more energy to raise by 1 degree C than dry air. So less water vapour = less energy required.

How much noticeable difference this makes in practice I don't know. I did find my house much warmer when I started using the dehumidifier – but that's because it was chucking out warm dry air. Which is where we came in!

Sorry to hear that @Snuggleworm

Ive always convinced myself that as long as I clean the filter constantly, it’s safe.

I hope you’re getting it all sorted out as smoothly as possible. 💐

I think that's the normal condenser one that makes the house damp. Heat pump ones are not supposed to have that problem.