Humidity, no heating and drying washing

[OnTheRanDan]

My house is really high humidity now and I'm worried that it'll only get worse over the winter if I'm not putting the heating on very much due to the prices.
I have a couple of dehumidifiers which are good and also provide a bit of heat but is it better to buy and use a tumble drier?
Or would it be better to just put the heating on enough to dry washing and keep humidity at bay?
What would be the cheapest and most effective option?
How the heck will people dry their washing?

No advice sorry but following!

Dehumidifiers are apparently expensive to run. I always worry about lots of wet washing causing mold and also the damp clothes starting to smell. Even though not cheap to run, a tumble dryer is super efficient. Make sure you are not washing your clothes too often; teenagers putting things to wash after wearing them for 2.4 minutes 😕 .

Heated clothes dryer with a few humidifier next to it works great. I find even my condenser dryer ours a lot of moisture out so I only use it when I must x

This is exactly why I am going to have to run the heating whether I like it or not. I am going to turn the thermostat down and just have the heating on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening. If you are more hardy than me, you could just put it on in the evening for an hour?

But yes anything electric is going to be expensive to run 🤦🏻‍♀️

When I lived in a damp house I used to hang the washing on a rack close to a radiator, cover it with a double duvet cover and run the heating for an hour. Made sure the duvet cover went over the radiator. Worked a great.

I worry that having the heating on for short times to dry washing will just mean the moisture is still in the air and will then condense onto everything again once the heating is off.

Or would it be better to just put the heating on enough to dry washing and keep humidity at bay?

Putting heating on to dry washing indoors won't remove humidity, it will just transfer moisture from the washing to the air in your home. Unless you then ventilate the rooms extremely well, you're just building up moisture indoors.

Either get a tumble dryer or a decent dehumidifier and leave it in the 'drying room' with the door shut.

Money saving expert threads seem to indicate that dehumidifier is cheaper than tumble drier but some dehumidifiers won't work well if in a cold room.
Also dehumidifiers are best in smallish rooms with door closed. I have a big open plan room which is open onto the stairs. My dehumidifiers will be trying to extract moisture from a large area.

Dehumidifiers are not expensive to run, just check the wattage. Ours uses 0.2KW/h which costs 5.5p per hour to run at the current rate. If we use it in the smallest room in the house it typically takes 3-4 hrs to dry a full load of washing. We have found the most economical way of drying out washing during the winter is to hang it outdoors during the day when it is dry and then finish it off with the dehumidifier indoors.

Mine goes on the line outside all year round. A careful eye on the weather forecast and a final finish off on the Sheila Maid and the jib's done.

I do have a tumble dryer but have never used it. Not once!

Jib? Job.

@FuzzyPuffling do you live north or south of Birmingham?

I'm doing exactly this. Washing has been outside for the afternoon and I will finish off with dehumidifier.

My dehumidifier costs 4p per hour to run, compared to £1.30 per cycle for the tumble dryer!

Yes hanging washing outside is obviously better, however those drying days have to coincide with days there is washing, days I'm not leaving early for work and days when it doesn't pour down when I'm at work. Plus my line is under a massive tree and bird poo is a constant. The reality is that I will always need to dry washing indoors for a large part of the winter.

We'll be doing the dehumidifier in the smallest room this year, shame as my tumble is amazing. I use the line all summer but over the last few days I've been getting the washing in and out with every bloody shower. It's so damp outside in the winter where we are (in a valley) nothing dries.

I live in the soggy south west, in the face of the Atlantic lows. (I used to live in Yorkshire...line dried there too!)

Depends on the dehumidifier but it should be cheaper to run. Also putting heating on won't solve the humidity problem. And dehumidifier makes you feel it's warmer than it actually is.
But do check the costs. Do you have a smart meter?

I do not have a smart meter. British Gas have told me my system is too old to have one.

We just put our washing on a clothes horse in the bathroom with the window wide open, shut the bathroom door, and leave it to dry with the heating off during the day - obviously, we'd shut the window if we went out. We don't have the heating on much in the winter, and haven't had a high humidity problem.

Dehumidifiers are much cheaper than tumble driers.
I think there is a big difference in humidity between different houses.

I have a dehumidifier in the spare room and dry my washing in there with the window and door closed. When not drying washing the window is cracked open
On a nice sunny day I open the window fully and stuff dries fairly quickly inside (I can't dry outside)

What do you do if you are out at work etc? In winter I can't see how anything but a tumble dryer is a practical solution, that wouldn't result in either damp/ humidity or things taking hours to dry.

Could you use your bathroom as the drying room?

This might seem counterintuitive but do you ever open the windows during the day?

Humidity and damp in many homes is caused by a lack of ventilation. You need to balance the amount of air coming in with what's going out. Lots of wet washing will increase the humidity and if there's no window open, there's nowhere for it to go.

Consider having a quick windows-open session in the daytime. It'll feel warmer once you close them!