Not Heating the Human but Drying The Clothes ?

YoungBlueEyes

I’ve never had a tumble drier. I line dry 98% of the time. My granny used to say “if your flagstones are dry your washing will dry” and it’s true. So long as there’s a bit of breeze and the humidity is in the 70’s% or lower the wash goes out. On days that are continually raining I either don’t wash, or only do wee bits and put them on the clothes horse in the spare room with the window open a smidge. Never had a mould or damp problem. 

A few times a year when the weather doesn’t let up I’ll wash the big stuff (bedding, towels, jeans) and dry them at the laundrette. 

If I know there’s gonna be a good hard frost, I’ll stick a load of whites on and leave them out overnight. The frost kills whatever bugs/germs have been left after the wash and leaves them whiter. 

brewerdave

Only time we are driven to use the tumble dryer now, is when we have washed bedding and it's too wet (or cold) to dry outside. Otherwise we use the upstairs landing. 

BUFF

eliza2811 said:

  The gas central heating has to be on to create warm air to dry the washing if its hanging on the radiators anyway.  

Don't hang washing over a radiator, hang it in front of a radiator (on a rack etc.).
Hanging it over will affect the radiator heating the room.

PennyForThem_2

YoungBlueEyes said:

If I know there’s gonna be a good hard frost, I’ll stick a load of whites on and leave them out overnight. The frost kills whatever bugs/germs have been left after the wash and leaves them whiter. 

Used to work for NHS Public Health organisation and was told by microbiologist that sticking bugs/germs in the freezer was a preservative!  Just rethaw and do.....

KxMx

I get on fine drying indoors during winter, I have several airers, use an inexpensive dehumidifier overnight if not longer, window open for at least a few hours then the general heat from CH finishes them off.
No issues with mould at all. No rack marks,  if the fabric is delicate then it goes on a hanger and hung from the rack. 

Used to use a spare room,  will be a bit more tricky now as I live in a one bed flat, but I've a plan. 

Load 1 bedding will be put in living room before I go to bed with dehumidifier on (ideally I'll have had had window open as well),  two adjoining doors shut.
Any smalls in bathroom either hung from shower rail + rack.

Load 2 big fleece dressing gown &  bath sheet towel will go into bathroom with anything smaller, again racks + rail.

I have 1 small, one tall &  1 jumbo rack.

I'll need to work on my shower schedule to save moving everything out then back in once room dry more than I have to,  otherwise I don't forsee any issues. 

It's obviously not as quick drying as a tumble dryer but it dries efficiency enough to do two loads a week and not have washing out all the time.

[Deleted User]

Heated Lakeland 3 tier dryer with a cover in the bathroom, costs little to run - 21m of space, takes 15kg and 300w - the mini is 13m of space 198W. Cover keeps the humidity in and stops the place smelling of drying laundry as well as drying faster. Supposedly costs about 6p an hour to run but that was before the price rises going up

The standard 3 tier is £120 at the moment, 20% off ends tonight.

wittynamegoeshere

KxMx said:

I get on fine drying indoors during winter, I have several airers, use an inexpensive dehumidifier overnight if not longer, window open for at least a few hours then the general heat from CH finishes them off.
No issues with mould at all. No rack marks,  if the fabric is delicate then it goes on a hanger and hung from the rack. 

Used to use a spare room,  will be a bit more tricky now as I live in a one bed flat, but I've a plan. 

Load 1 bedding will be put in living room before I go to bed with dehumidifier on (ideally I'll have had had window open as well),  two adjoining doors shut.
Any smalls in bathroom either hung from shower rail + rack.

Load 2 big fleece dressing gown &  bath sheet towel will go into bathroom with anything smaller, again racks + rail.

I have 1 small, one tall &  1 jumbo rack.

I'll need to work on my shower schedule to save moving everything out then back in once room dry more than I have to,  otherwise I don't forsee any issues. 

It's obviously not as quick drying as a tumble dryer but it dries efficiency enough to do two loads a week and not have washing out all the time.

What you've done is you've turned your house into a giant inefficient heat pump tumble dryer.

You'd probably save money, time and hassle by just putting the stuff in a dryer and taking it all out an hour or two later.

One factor that many don't account for is that drying laundry actually actively cools the house just as an air conditioner does through evaporation, so it either makes you colder or makes the heating work harder to maintain the same temperature, costing you money.

I realise that not everyone currently owns one, but I'm happy ours was a very good investment of £500-odd.  You could soon spend a good chunk of this amount on all those racks, dehumidifiers and so on anyway.

KxMx

My dehumidifier was £20 and newest rack I paid for with reward points. Dehumidifier same size as old house and that was good at pulling out a lot of water so I know it will be sufficient in new home. 

My flat doesn't have room for a tumble dryer,  I did look at combination washer/dryers but between the poor reviews across the board and number of hours electric I'd need just for one cycle,  I decided against it.

I don't expect to walk around in shorts & t shirt during the winter and I've set my thermostat at 18, which I consider a starting point as think I'd be fine with lower.
My heating is looking to be one hour (auto timer)  in the morning and 1 hour maximum (manual)  in the evening. That's for the coldest days,  I'm not expecting to run it 2 hours every day throughout winter. 
It'd have to be super cold to use it at all in the afternoon.

At my low income level I'm happy that I've made the right choice.
I'm in the midst of calculating if I can afford to start using my outside light on automatic,  that's my reality! 

wittynamegoeshere

Fair enough, my point is just that heat pump tumble dryers are not the enemy, and drying inside on racks is not free.

You're right, washer-dryers are generally terrible.  Jack of all and master of none.

wild666

If the person must use a tumble dryer try getting a heat pump tumble dryer it will use about 25% of the electric a condenser dryer does they start at around £400  like this Candy dryer.