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Housekeeping

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Original poster

What do you do with your wet washing when it's raining and the heating is off?

106 replies

Worried123456 · 22/10/2013 10:55

The energy hikes sound terrifying so I know I must use the drier less. What do you do with the washing though? I could put it on the radiators but they are off?! Is it cheaper to turn the heating on then use the drier? Or do I get an airer and just wait for it to dry? The house isn't very warm (but I have a jumper on!) so it would take rather a while!?

OP posts:
ShoeWhore · 26/10/2013 15:42

I put the airer on the landing and the warm air rising up seems to get stuff dry fairly quickly.

I do tumble dry sheets towels undies and school uniform in the winter though.

Sharpkat · 26/10/2013 15:49

My Lakeland airer arrived this morning Grin

Typically I have no washing to so Hmm

insancerre · 26/10/2013 15:51

I do the same as shoewhore I hang it all on the airer on the landing. I also have a clothes rail on wheels that I use to dry washing on, I put shirts etc on hangers and hang them next to the dryer (luckily my landing is big enough)
Towels and bedding hangs over the bannisters at the top of the stairs.

Monkeyandanimal · 26/10/2013 20:21

Day one of the dehumidifier; its not even on at full tilt and is drying the washing almost as you watch....and the little room in which clothes are drying has been heated by it, and also doesn't feel humid, so that's gotta be a winner. i shall let you know more tomorrow.

scarlet5tyger · 27/10/2013 11:20

I have a dehumdifier too as my house is so damp but am concerned about the running cost. It's a delonghi Dem10 and on constantly. The instructions say it'll eventually only switch itself on occasionally but at the moment I'm still emptying the tank twice a day!

I already dry as much washing outside as I can, and don't put it over radiators. Not sure what else I can do!

(Just wanted to query the earlier comment about not putting the dehumidifier in the bathroom because of the danger of mixing water and electric - the dehumidifier is full of water anyway, why does the bathroom make a difference? Oh, and I wondered about it trying to suck up every bit of water too - is my cats water safe??)

PigletJohn · 27/10/2013 11:27

When you use a dehumidifier, you have to put it in a room with the doors and windows shut, or it will try to dehumidify the world.

Bathrooms are especially dangerous for electricity because you are likely to have bare wet skin in contact with earthed metal taps and pipes.

PigletJohn · 27/10/2013 11:31

p.s.

A bathroom extractor fan is very effective at taking away water vapour and will run for 50 hours or more on 14p worth of electricity.

Jan49 · 27/10/2013 13:50

Is the damp caused by one airer of damp washing in one room any worse than the effects of people living there, damp towels after a shower, breathing, etc?

I just don't understand all this fuss about not being able to dry washing indoors because of damp and mould. I'm over 50 and have lived in lots of houses and flats and not had a problem with it. The house I grew up in was almost entirely unheated and we dried the washing indoors in the kitchen which only had the oven when used, no other heat. You don't have to drape washing all over your house, just use an airer and put it all on that. Why is it suddenly a problem? Will we be saying in 20 years time that no one can possible cook in a house, it all has to be takeaway because cooking in a house is bad and causes mould or something else? Genuinely puzzled by this. I intend to go on as I am, no tumble drier, just an airer.

PigletJohn · 27/10/2013 16:34

Jan

50 years ago people did not do so much washing

They had draughty, colder houses.

Most of them had no CH

They did not have tightly sealed windows.

Many of them had open chimneys sucking the damp air out, especially with an open or gas fire.

A couple of loads of washing can add half a bucket of water to the air in a house. People who make a habit of doing that, and not letting it out, do quite often experience condensation, damp and mould. If you don't, that's great.

Jan49 · 27/10/2013 17:14

So Piglet John, does that mean the problem is that people are doing lots of washing and the answer is surely to cut down on washing rather than endless tumble drying? Such as when people constantly change sheets and towels?

Jan49 · 27/10/2013 17:21

And just a thought, the room I now put my airer in has original 1910 windows and an open fireplace so it would fit your description of how they used to be, though it has CH.

Bubbles1066 · 27/10/2013 18:48

I use the drier most of the time. My drier costs 34p per hour, takes about 90 minutes a load so about 50p a load. That's really not that bad and I much prefer it to having washing on aired for days. Before I had the dryer clothes would go mouldy before they were dry unless I had the heating on loads which was a waste of gas. I try to limit myself to 3 dryer loads a week. I also have a heated airer (14p an hour) but I have to run that with the dehumidifier (4p an hour) or I get damp. I never dry washing on radiators, gas costs loads, it adds moisture to the air and effects the air circulation of the central heating. I also have a smart metre hence I know the exact costs.

Frontdoorstep · 27/10/2013 19:43

I do the same with my wet washing when it is raining and the heating is off as I do with my wet washing when it is dry, sunny, warm, heating is on. I tumble dry it.

Monkeyandanimal · 28/10/2013 08:03

I am LOVING my new dehumidifier; it dried 2 loads of laundry (including jeans and towels) yesterday, and heated the room it was in, and no signs of condensation or excess water in that room. It's manual says it costs 2p an hour to run...i don't know how true this is, but my friend who has the same model running 24/7 reckons hers doesn't make for shocking electricity bills. I do try to do less laundry Jan , but my 2 boys go through several changes of clothes a day, either due to muddy outdoor play, puddle jumping, messy eating (they are both very bad at getting food into themselves cleanly), nappy leaking and potty training accidents. Add to that the fact that my husband works outdoors and gets his clothes very damp and muddy....I don't seem to ever get to the bottom of my laundry, but if I leave it it for a few days until a sunny day, it then rots and festers and stinks of urine and mud!

Monkeyandanimal · 28/10/2013 08:04

its, obv. not it's. soz, punctuation police.

Clutterbugsmum · 28/10/2013 08:08

I do smaller loads, give and all loads a extra spin (my washer has a 16min spin). Have the airer in the kitchen and put the washing on there for overnight/24 hours and just finish in the dryer say for 10/20 mins.

Meglet · 28/10/2013 08:10

I put the heating on for a bit. But I don't iron so refuse to tumble dry clothes. May as well have a warm house than put all the energy into tumble drying it. Anything that can't be creased goes on the airer, undies and thick waistbands get lined up on all the radiators.

Without the heating on my damp laundry smells within 24hrs. As soon as we move house I'm getting a pulleymaid though, hopefully it will help.

MrsPennyapple · 28/10/2013 08:48

My dehumidifier makes the room colder! And I haven't noticed it getting the washing dry any faster. What am I doing wrong? It's in a big-ish room, would that make a difference?

Monkeyandanimal · 28/10/2013 08:53

I'm not sure mrsP , i'm new to them myself....is it a decent quality one? I splashed out on an expensive one....prob won't save any money in the long run, but at least i won't have smelly wet washing hanging about or mouldy walls like last year.

LordPalmerston · 28/10/2013 08:56

oh tumble dryer fgs

Monkeyandanimal · 28/10/2013 09:04

Absolutely nowhere to put a tumble dryer in our tiny house. Unless i want it running in the living room or on the landing.

PigletJohn · 28/10/2013 10:05

MrsPenny

If the room seems colder, that might be the fan blowing air around and causing evaporation from the walls, which absorbs heat. As long as you have the doors and windows shut, that heat will then be released from the exhaust of the machine when the water that has come out of the walls is condensed into the machine. If the doors or windows of the room are open, the machine will try to dehumidify the world. It will fail.

When you have a very wet house after a burst pipe or roof failure, fans are used to evaporate water out of the fabric of the house, in the same way that washing dries on the line on a windy day, and then the humid air resulting is removed either by ventilation, or dried with dehumidifiers. Ventilation is cheaper.

Bubbles1066 · 28/10/2013 10:10

Our tumble dryer is in the dining room - no room in the kitchen. I wouldn't be without it though even though it looks unsightly.

adagio · 28/10/2013 12:27

Monkeyandanimal

Please share, what dehumidifier have you got? I am following this thread closely - 10month old baby makes a lot of washing (not least because every meal seems to require a new outfit for both of us - when I was in work FT I ever had this problem!). Currently, it seems that all my tops smell a bit grim Hmm due I guess to no heating so slow drying on an overloaded airer.

I am torn between a desiccant dehumidifier (by Ecoair) which I believe will be slightly more expensive to run as it has a sort of fan heater inbuilt to recharge it, but a bit cheaper upfront; or a refrigerant one (by ebac) which I think will be cheaper to run, although it's a minefield out there of conflicting advice.

ouryve · 28/10/2013 12:46

That's why we have a washer-dryer, Monkey, even though we could really do with separates.