I’m an avid user of the washing line but in winter it just doesn’t get stuff dry…try to avoid drying clothes in the house as it gets mildew, but also I’m a tight git and I don’t have the heating on enough to make drying clothes inside viable, it takes about three days which results in smelly clothes.

We’ve got a combined washer/condenser dryer but its no good for half the wifes clothes and a few of my smarter clothes.

So if I want to convert the empty airing cupboard into a drying cupboard, whats the greenest/most effective method.

1) Dehumidifier only
2) Bathroom style extractor fan
3) Bathroom style extractor fan and a small oil radiator or electric towel rail on a low thermostat?

Heated drying rack very good if you have room.

Nearly bought a heated drying rack (you mean like a clothes horse?) this morning but stalled when I realised you hang the clothes from the heated part…the old fashioned drying racks at work had the heaters in the base and all the coat hooks were above the heater.

Looked at a few reviews and it sounded like if I wanted to dry a heavy sweatshirt or jodhpurs etc I would need to lie them flat across the whole dryer which means I’d only get a few items on there. As I’m trying to avoid drying clothes in the house (unless in a ventilated cupboard) I’d have to put the dryer in the cold garage and not sure how much heat they actually give out.

Family of 5 here and I’ve had to get a dehumidifier to compliment the tumble dryer in the winter. Works very well accompanying normal heating. 24 hrs (off at night) to dry a big clothes horse full.

Heating also dehumidifies.

We have an airing cupboard with the hot water tank in it, and that is enough to make it a very effective drying place – we put our smalls in there on a rack on the back of the door and they dry out in no time. It’s warm in there, but not particularly hot.

So what I’d do is fit a plug in it and an oil filled rad. You’d need it on fairly low I reckon. You do need some ventilation of course, but in ours leaving the door ajar is enough. I’d be tempted to maybe find some kind of low speed extractor fan for the roof of the cupboard if my house was prone to mildew, with a vent in the bottom of the door. Fan should be very very low though. Maybe I’d make my own out of a PC cooler or something.

EDIT so after reading your OP, that’s option 3 🙂

We put all our washing in the spare room with the dehumidifier on and it all dries overnight.

As zippy
Purchased a dehumidifier and use it in the south-facing spare room, works a treat

Heating also dehumidifies.

[pedant]Heating increases the air’s capacity for humidity, but the humidity doesn’t actually GO anywhere, so it doesn’t dehumidify. Unless you extract the warm moist air of course[/pedant]

ily of 5 here and I’ve had to get a dehumidifier to compliment the tumble dryer in the winter. Works very well accompanying normal heating. 24 hrs (off at night) to dry a big clothes horse f

Same here.

And 13thfloormonk has it – heating *doesn’t dehumidify*

We’ve got a small dehumidifier from Aldi in the utility, one of the best things we’ve purchased. No more mildew and things dry within a day. Have a tumbledryer too but could do without unlike the dehumidifier

13thfloormonk – Member

Heating increases the air’s capacity for humidity, but the humidity doesn’t actually GO anywhere

How many day’s worth of oxygen do you have in your completely sealed house? 💡

Another dehumidifier in the spare room user here.

Works well. Also works well for drying the winter air in the van .

I had a very large dehumidifier and a fan running in my kitchen after a leak from upstairs. Jeans or thick towels were dry in less than two hours!

Family of 4 big wash will dry overnight on a heated clothes horse.
We cover it with a king size fitted mattress sheet which keeps the heat in but lets the moisture out.
Costs pennies to run and fits in our tiny box room.

How many day’s worth of oxygen do you have in your completely sealed house?

Well it’s a new-build, so built to pretty tight air-leakage criteria, if we go to bed with the trickle vents closed we wake up all puffy eyed from the CO2 (same as sleeping in a badly ventilated tent).

But I think your point was supposed to be that air movement in a leaky house removes the humidity, and I agree, removing humidity = dehumidifying, which is why I wrote

Unless you extract the warm moist air of course

See? Amazing what happens if you read the whole post 😉

thanks guys…reckon I’ll get a dehumidifier as it saves installing an extractor fan to remove the moisture created by heating the washing 🙂

And 13thfloormonk has it – heating *doesn’t dehumidify*

It doesn’t remove water vapour but it does decrease relative humidity. So more water evaporates from the clothes. Then you need to do something with the air, hence the talk of vents and fans.

In our house it escapes somewhere. Not sure where. Possibly the fan vent in the upstairs bathroom. These sealed new build houses, are the extractor fan vents closed when not in use?

Heated airer and window on latch/ajar.

Works great.

Takes overnight but is gentle on clothes.