Gas Tumble Dryer! Save £££'s

anruari

I have just invested in a gas tumble dryer to replace my old vented one.

I thought others would like to know my thoughts and potential savings. I calculate that for a heavy user a gas tumble dryer could save the purchase and install cost (vs a conventional dryer) in as little as 1 year!!!!

I've just switched energy suppliers, and know that in the past 2 years my gas and electric use has been:

Far above average for electricty: typically more than a 4 bedroom family home. Laundry costs are a huge element in that.

Far less than average on Gas: typically less than a 1 bed Flat!

The gas is somethin I put down to installing a Vailliant Ecotec Combi-Boiler 5 years ago. plus super insulating the loft (walls are hard to insulate, but have the thin cavity filled already)

We are in a small 2 bed home, and have 2 toddlers. We use "real" nappies, and our laundry means an average of 1 nappy wash every 2 days, and a minimum of 1 clothing wash per day.

There is nowhere in our tiny home to dry clothes indoors except the tumble dryer, so anything that can be tumbled does get tumbled except in good dry weather.


Our old vented tumble dryer stopped working efficiently, and is almost 10 years old. I decided to look at more energy eficient options.

A heat recovery tumble dryer sounds like a good idea but only recovers around 20% of total energy consumption at best compared to a vented dryer. Cost per load is 40p vs a 50p cost for our old machine.
they cost upwards of £400, and are typically closer to £600 for a "good" one.
a 7kg vented dryer is about £125.
Payback time is therefore 2750 loads of laundry. at a high use average of 1 load per day that's 7.58 years. At "Typical use" of 140 loads per year that's a 20 year payback vs a reliable vented tumble dryer (and the appliance cant be expected to last more than 10 years.)

THerefore the "Energy efficient" dryers don't save money in the long run, and their increased embedded carbon probably outweighs any potential carbon saving. These are not a good buy if you can use a vented dryer.


Gas Dryers.
I was on N-Power, economy 7 meter, with a day time rate of 17.89p (and the dryer now mostly gets run in the day or it wakes up the children who sleep above the kitchen... plus the dog barks if it's run at night.)
My Gas rate was 3.83p
assuming a 3KwH use per typical load as quoted for most data sheets, a Load in the old dryer costs 54p and a load in the gas dryer costs 11.5p
that's a saving of 42p per load.

The unit cost £315 for an Eco83A (Auto sensing not timer so less wasted energy)
Installation will cost me circa £100 (waiting on quote from gas safe plumber) (2 hour labour @ £48 inc VAT & Parts is his estimate)
Parts for me will be 2m 22mm copper pipe + fittings, & 2m 100mm plastic duct to reach to & through external wall + fittings.
(It's going in a different location, not on an outside wall - old location is 10m from gas supply)

total cost say £415
saving 42p per load.
total cost pays for itself in 988 loads (assuming existing dryer has that much life left which it dosent)
or minus cost of cheap replacement vented dryer cost is
£290 - pays for itself in 690 loads.

At our family average use of 1 load tumbled per day that's a payback period of 1.89 years (23 months) vs a like for like replacement expected soon as the current dryer is not drying properly, and has lots of wear (it's 10 years old)

Our actual use may be far higher, as we're more likely to do 2 wash loads as a daily average.

Install Costs
These are far from negligible. a minimum cost if you have an existing gas point is going to be 1 hours labour (say £50)
Most people will need to have a gas pipe run to where the dryer is to be installed. that could result in up to a full man-day of labour to install the new pipe and fit the dryer depending on the situation.

However even if you need to pay £300 for the install the total cost is comparable to the cost of a "Good" "Energy saving" tumble dryer (condensing / heat exchanger - but not the Mel! one which is closer to £900)

the payback on a total of £600 if replacing an existing working dryer is 1428 loads.
that's a 4 year payback period if it's used on average once a day.



Cheaper electricity

I've just switched to Scottish Power. Daytime rate is 12.2p (or single rate would be 10.6p). Gas rate is 3.4p

my saving per load will be 26.4p per load. and if I went to single rate electric it would be 21.6p

My new payback period is therefore:
1571 loads = 4.3 years @ 1 load per day.
or 2.1 years @ 2 loads per day.
(with a baby in washable nappies that's not unrealistic... and we're planning on trying again soon so the nappies will stay in use)


Conclusion
The payback period varies with how heavy your use of the dryer is, and with your energy tarrif, however as electricity is at least 2.5x - 3x the price of gas there's always a significant saving to be made is a major heating appliance is switched to gas.

A Gas tumble dryer is less than the cost of a standard condensing dryer, but will cost something to install. that will be anything from £50 up, and you will need to shop around. local plumbers are far cheaper than the branded service providers.

Only a few plumbers are qualified to do tumble dryer installs (search the gas safe website) I could only find 2 in my area... most of those listed said they didn't do it and their listing was out of date.

My cash flow is tight: but I'm lucky enough to be able to rate-tart on credit cards, so I don't have to pay interest on credit card debt (I just swap between a couple of providers... and Barclaycard gave me an insanely credit limit on a 0% deal. And send me new balance transfer offers every few months)

All that said, with the rising cost of electricity, swapping to a Gas dryer was a no-brainer for me (as I have the 0% deals available).

In the near future, provided the Shale Gas supplies come on line, I predict that within the life of the appliance the gap between gas and electric costs will probably increase significantly!!!!

If UK shale gas does not come on line we will have electrical brown-outs and rationed supply... We dont have enough energy projects to replace the stock being decommissioned in the next 5 years!!!! A new Gas power plant is cheap and very quick to build, and least polluting of all traditional methods of carbon generation.

Most of the 11 formerly proposed Nuclear power plant projects have now been shelved, and those that are still in planning are on a "Go-Slow" with uncertain future (I have "inside" knowledge here)


Hope this helps.


PS. In the UK market only WhiteKnight make and sell a domestic gas tumble dryer. You might get a 2nd hand commercial one some places but the ones I found were more expensive.

They have 2 models. one on a simple timer the Eco43A and a digitally controlled one humidically controlled (The Eco83A). the latter one will save significant energy as it turns off as soon as the clothes reach your set "Dryness" instead of carrying on until the timer runs out.... It's only slightly more expensive (£20 - 40).



Consider: The official governments guidelines for assessing the cost effectiveness of energy saving investment is savings over 10 years should be more than the capital cost. (e.g. costs of insulation, small renewable energy, smart meters etc. Also the cost of installation will survive past the first appliance as the gas pipe and ventilation will stay in place, making a future replacement very cheap to install [circa 30mins labour] )

warmhands.coldheart

Thanks V Much, very informative..... I have toyed with the idea but have only had gas now for 1 year and had only bought a new Dryer the year before. Defo bear in mind for the future..

nickj_2

you've not included any servicing costs, as all gas products need servicing would this not narrow the savings , presumeably you're going to pay at least £30 per year?