Electric clothes horse vs tumble drier

B0bbyEwing

Wife sent me link this morning: https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/16324816/how-much-cost-run-heated-clothes-airer/

I'm skeptical but told her I'd look in to it.

Has anyone here got one of these on ran the numbers on one of these? 

Read the article and it almost says use one instead of your tumble drier but stops just short of that. I'm thinking that in reality, there's more to it than that.

As I'm the thread starter I'm going to tailor the question to my own situation - so in summer like what we've just had, everything goes out on the washing line so it's not even a question of what's cheapest method to dry. So this question is purely for wet days and/or winter days.

Currently what we do is anything that can't be tumble dried goes on the clothes horse with the dehumidifier running. Everything else goes in the tumble drier. 

Now I'm just wanting other people to bounce this idea off against, especially if we have to start crunching numbers because you guys will be better there than me, so here's where I'm thinking:

Due to the size of these clothes horses, I suspect we would still need the tumble drier going, else we'd have to buy multiple horses to accommodate all the clothes. In addition to this, I suspect that we'd also need the dehumidifier running - so we'd need to factor that in with the cost of a heated clothes horse & compare that to the tumble drier for a more accurate picture.
But as I suspect the tumble drier would be needed anyway, then it may just be cheaper all round to just continue as we currently do in winter times - tumble-dry safe clothes go in the tumble drier & non-safe clothes go on the clothes horse with the dehumidifier running.

But I said I'd look in to it for her so here I am. Maybe I'm missing something. What do you guys think of this?

Coming from the angle of trying to minimise cost once we have our backsides spanked with the energy hike in the coming months.

elsien

There are some people in old style who use these I think - seem the Lakeland one recommended. 

Might be worth asking on there about he many clothes you can fit on, and drying time, to help with your calculations. 

Brie

Well it will depend on how many people were talking about and how often you wash clothes. 

There's been a lot said recently about the fact that we (western civilisation in general) wash our clothes much too often which is bad for the environment, our bank accounts and our clothes.  Every time you wash fibres are lost which end up somewhere  which is why the Antartic is polluted with fleece fibres.  Clothes disintegrate over time needing to be replaced.  So you might consider are you washing too much stuff.  Some things are fine with a good airing - it works nicely for suits so why not tshirts and jeans too.  

So if you wash things less often you have less to dry, less running of dehumidifiers, less space taken up with clothes draped everywhere.  Same applies for linen, towels etc.  I was surprised once when I heard an interview with a hotel manager who was talking about the amount of laundry they do and that she herself washes her own towels twice a week.  (& without fabric softener as it makes them less absorbent apparently).  We do ours every other week.  Unless of course someone manages to dip them in shaving soap or something.

And if you do need to use a tumble drier use that less too.  If you just almost dry things - particularly good cotton things - and then hang them on your clothes horse on hangers while still a bit damp the wrinkles will fall out and you are less likely to need to iron them.  Or iron them when they are still damp out of the drier - always of course making sure that they don't lay about in either the washer or the drier as that's when things get really crinkly.

And things can still go out on the line when it's cold out.  Things don't dry as fast but they still will dry.  Believe me.  I've lived in places where you'd put stuff out and it would freeze and you'd bring it in to thaw and then put it out again.  It's slow but it works.

Dehumidifier? Why?  unless it's in an mostly enclosed room what you are doing is trying to dry all the air in the world.  Much better to have an open window so the moisture can escape naturally.  

Currently we are a 2 adult household, one clothes horse, one out door line.  There is a drier that the OH sometimes uses but I really want to ditch it as it is so amazingly inefficient  - half a load could run for 24 hours straight and it still wouldn't be dry.  A real money waster.

Alnat1

Might depend on your tumble drier, some are very expensive to run, some (heat pump type) are not so bad.

Also factor in, tumble drying reduces the need to iron, so saves that way too

QrizB

Without doing any sums at all, I think that if you can currently dry your laundry effectively using a non-heated airer plus a dehumidifier then there's nothing to gain by adding a heated clothes horse to the mix.

What sort of tumble dryer do you have?

The main benefit of a heated clothes horse is that the drying energy stays in the house and isn't vented (for a conventional dryer) or dumped to the drains (for a condenser).

If your dryer is a heat pump one, you don't have that loss in the first place.

B0bbyEwing

elsien said:

There are some people in old style who use these I think - seem the Lakeland one recommended. 

Might be worth asking on there about he many clothes you can fit on, and drying time, to help with your calculations. 

Thanks. I just automatically came here with it being an energy use question. Didn't think of elsewhere tbh.

Brie said:

Well it will depend on how many people were talking about and how often you wash clothes. 

2 & once per week. Sort of.
Once for the darks, unless there's that many darks they don't fit & it needs to be 2 loads.
Once for the whites.

Brie said:

There's been a lot said recently about the fact that we (western civilisation in general) wash our clothes much too often which is bad for the environment,

While I'm not about to pour my used engine oil down the drain, this also doesn't put me off any I'm afraid.

Brie said:

our bank accounts

this one will though l

ok can someone tell me why when I keep typing lol does it bring up a list of smileys, auto types in disappointed?

Honestly, first weird quoting system & now this. What's going on?!

Brie said:

Some things are fine with a good airing - it works nicely for suits so why not tshirts and jeans too.  

Some stuff I don't put for wash so much. Jeans I don't bother, unless they start stinking or get visibly dirty.

T-shirts on the other hand, yes - because they get ruined with sweat stains so need this washing out. One of my favourite t-shirts looks peppered on the back due to sweat.

Brie said:

she herself washes her own towels twice a week.  (& without fabric softener as it makes them less absorbent apparently).  We do ours every other week.  Unless of course someone manages to dip them in shaving soap or something.

Towels get done once a week here. 
I know some people put fresh towels out every day. I don't get it myself. You're only drying yourself. You've just washed the vast majority of the sweat & dirt of you. I assume you've then rinsed the soapy water off you so all that should be on you is relatively clean water. 
So our towels just get done at the end of the week.

Brie said:

And things can still go out on the line when it's cold out.  Things don't dry as fast but they still will dry.  Believe me. 

You appear to think we haven't tried it.

We have.

Clothes have gone out in cold weather - they've been out all day. Sure they may be drier than they were when they were initially put out but barely. 
So then they come in & go in the drier. What have we saved? 10 mins of drier time? Not sure. Some clothes are needed the next day like work clothes so can't afford to just keep putting them out day after day for the next 3-4 weeks trying to get them dry.

All the while they're sat there wet & end up stinking.

Brie said:

Dehumidifier? Why?  unless it's in an mostly enclosed room what you are doing is trying to dry all the air in the world.  Much better to have an open window so the moisture can escape naturally.  

Is it?

We've tried that you see & ended up with black mould on the ceiling.

Dehimidifier helped. 

And they go in the spare room with the door shut & dehumidifier on. 

If you had the picture of them being in the living room, every single door in the house open including external doors then no that's not the picture I should've painted.

Brie said:

half a load could run for 24 hours straight and it still wouldn't be dry.  A real money waster.

I think 60-80mins for a full load on low heat sees us about right.

B0bbyEwing

QrizB said:

What sort of tumble dryer do you have?

To be honest I don't know the various sorts.

I know the one we have & I know the one my mum used in the 80s/early 90s with the ribbed pipe out the window.

Ours is this one: https://www.hotpoint.co.uk/hotpoint-aquarius-tvm-570-p-tumble-dryer-white-f068696/p

Alnat1

Can I suggest tumble dryer balls. I use them and they seemed to shorten the drying time so I thought I should prove it. https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/jml-dryer-balls-2-pack/p/0412526

Used our king sized bedding as the test load as it's washed weekly. First week, with balls took 36 mins in tumble dryer, 2nd week, no balls, it took 48 mins. So a 25% time reduction.

nottsphil

Brie said:

Dehumidifier? Why?  unless it's in an mostly enclosed room what you are doing is trying to dry all the air in the world.  Much better to have an open window so the moisture can escape naturally.  

No it's not because all you're doing there is heating 'all the air in the world'!
In the heating season I routinely use a dehumidifier, not least because I know that ALL the energy it consumes will be returned as heat. 

SAC2334

neither, not at 45 p per kwh !
I hardly used my tumble dryer when my leccy was 10 p kwh so the tumble dryer is off limits and won t be used again unless in emergency's . 
I m retired now so can pick my day to peg out the washing and even in winter clothes will dry if theres a bit of wind.
Plan B is to use my large rear conservatory 

QrizB

SAC2334 said:

neither, not at 45 p per kwh !
I hardly used my tumble dryer when my leccy was 10 p kwh so the tumble dryer is off limits and won t be used again unless in emergency's .

I was almost expecting you to say you've bypassed your meter, what with your inside knowledge ...

I m retired now so can pick my day to peg out the washing and even in winter clothes will dry if theres a bit of wind.

I've definitely tried that in winter and sometimes ended up with stiff frozen clothes.

nottsphil said:

Brie said:

Dehumidifier? Why?  unless it's in an mostly enclosed room what you are doing is trying to dry all the air in the world.  Much better to have an open window so the moisture can escape naturally.  

No it's not because all you're doing there is heating 'all the air in the world'!

Yes, exactly this. All the air you lose from the house through that open window is air you've spent good money to heat. Plus each litre of water that evaporates from your wet laundry takes another two-thirds of a kWh with it.

Using a dehumidifier keeps the warm air in your house and recovers the energy fr the water vapour too.