Our standard (vented) tumble drier is in almost constant use and I know they are not particularly effiecient. I have recently been alerted to condenser driers like this http://ao.com/product/gvhd913a2bc-candy-grando-vita-condenser-tumble-dryer-black-41162-18.aspx

It gives a PA running cost (is this based on an assumption????) but how do I translate that to actual running cost (ie, how much does it cost to run when in operation). We have a smart meter so I can see how much our current one uses so I would like to be able to compare and make an estimate of how long it would take to pay for itself.

EDIT: This is our current one (I think) http://ao.com/product/tvfm70bgp-hotpoint-aquarius-vented-tumble-dryer-white-29929-19.aspx

We have a condensor drier, uses about 300-400W when running IIRC. I can measure it at the WE if you’re really interested…

Just buying a tumble dryer, from the Which? website they state that the costs of running are based on 3 times per week for an entire year.

P=IV
P=(your current draw)x 240
Convert to kWh – (P/1000) x Hrs drier is running
Cost = kWh x your electricity unit cost

Edit: Or do you know all that already, and you are trying to figure out from the vague numbers that manufacturers post how to do same calculation for your theoretical new drier?

3 times per week

LOLS! Yeah right!

daft isnt it. With a new born and a grubby fluffy dog we’d be using it everyday at least twice!!

Can copy you the full list of “best buys” from Which? if you like?

Yeah that would be good ta 🙂

you are trying to figure out from the vague numbers that manufacturers post how to do same calculation for your theoretical new drier?

Just trying to work out if it makes economic sense to get rid of a perfectly good drier and spend £400 on a new one in order to ‘save’ money given I have come to accept that it is in use most of the time.

How to work out the cost of running a tumble drier

…life’s to short for that sort of thing!

I sat down and worked ours out once, £30 a month based on it going on ‘most days’ I seem to recall…

Wish I never bought the bloody thing TBH, we managed before – summer on the line, winter on a clothes horse, but there were a few times it backed up, but it was fine.

The MOMENT I put the thing in I might as well have dug up the washing line, it could be 25c with a light breeze out, and the tumble will be whirring away.

http://ao.com/help-and-advice/help-with-my-product/energy-labels-explained says that:

The annual energy consumption for a tumble dryer is based on 160 cycles. You can check the product specifications to see how many kWh are used on average per year. This will give you an idea of the running costs. Our range is rated C or above, with heat pump drying technology being some of the most energy efficient around. These models use lower temperatures and recycle warm air, rather than wasting it.

The drier you are looking at says it uses 259 Kwh a year (which they say is around £39.89 a year based on a leccy cost of 15.40p/Unit).

So sounds like it is roughly 259 Kwh / 160 = 1.61875Kwh per cycle.

BUT… it is really hard to compare because modern tumble driers adjust their cycle time and/or heat based on how wet the load is (“sensor drying”) and other stuff like Eco or Delicate settings also impact it.

Easiest way would be to get one of those plug in electricity meters to go in the socket the incumbent tumble drier is plugged into. This will provide a kWh figure per load.

Multiply this by the same assumptions the new machine is rated at for annual equivelent cost.

In general terms though, you are probably unlikely to get a reasonable pay back period from scrapping a funcionable drier to buy a new one.

If you want to save money, dry more stuff on the like outside…

Model – Rating – Cost

Miele TCE620 WP Eco 70% BEST BUY TODAY’S BEST PRICE £899.98
Miele TKB540WP 70% BEST BUY ENERGY SAVER TODAY’S BEST PRICE £849.00
Siemens WT4HY790GB 76% BEST BUY TODAY’S BEST PRICE £829.99
Miele TMB540WP 70% BEST BUY ENERGY SAVER TYPICAL PRICE £799.00
Bosch WTYH6790GB 77% BEST BUY ENERGY SAVER TODAY’S BEST PRICE £749.90
Siemens WT47W590GB 71% BEST BUY ENERGY SAVER TODAY’S BEST PRICE £742.36
Miele T 8722 69% BEST BUY TODAY’S BEST PRICE £695.00
Bosch WTWH7560GB 74% BEST BUY ENERGY SAVER TODAY’S BEST PRICE £680.00
Bosch WTW87560GB White 77% BEST BUY ENERGY SAVER TODAY’S BEST PRICE £664.00
AEG T86581IH1 70% BEST BUY ENERGY SAVER TYPICAL PRICE £580.00
Beko DPH8756W 70% BEST BUY TYPICAL PRICE £559.00
Miele TDA 140 C 68% BEST BUY TODAY’S BEST PRICE £535.00
Siemens WT45N200GB 66% BEST BUY TODAY’S BEST PRICE £499.00
Bosch WTB84200GB White 66% BEST BUY TODAY’S BEST PRICE £369.99
White Knight ECO43A White 70% BEST BUY TODAY’S BEST PRICE £347.99
Zanussi ZDC8202P White 66% BEST BUY TODAY’S BEST PRICE £284.00
Bosch WTA74200GB White 66% BEST BUY TODAY’S BEST PRICE £244.00

Give us a shout if you want anything else

Easiest way would be to get one of those plug in electricity meters to go in the socket the incumbent tumble drier is plugged into. This will provide a kWh figure per load.

Multiply this by the same assumptions the new machine is rated at for annual equivelent cost.

Assuming you know what cycle the machine was measured on. And what size load. And how damp it was. And what fabrics it contained.

How about living in your house for a year and not using a single other electrical appliance of any sort for that year? Only use the drier.

That way you’ll get an accurate idea.

HTH

😉

it could be 25c with a light breeze out, and the tumble will be whirring away.

Next door to us are like this, they always use their tumble dryer regardless of how sunny/warm/breezy it is.

We don’t have one and don’t miss one.

We hardly ever use ours, hardly ever used it with kids either. It can be done, and isn’t that hard unless your house is terribly damp.

Condenser driers can be much more efficient but you end up with a programme that takes 6 hours or so.

reminds me of the ‘silent running’ thread we had a while ago where people were comparing the power consumption when all normal things were off.

nothing I love move that coming home on a warm summers day to see the dryer on….because she is drying towels and they come out nice and **** fluffy.

Only use ours if it’s raining and cold. First option is washing line in garden, second option is hand in spare bedroom and leave the window open. Drier is a last resort for damp, humid days.

It was easier when the kids were little, but now with horse riding for one, football for one, hockey for both kids and the Mrs, a cocker spaniel true to breed and me MTBing at least twice a week, we do use it in the Autumn and Winter.

We’ve also got a heated airer which we find generally better, running at 300watts and able to hang at least two full loads of washing on it whilst contributing to heating the sun room too, in a way the tumble drier just doesn’t.

3 times per week

LOLS! Yeah right![/quote]

That’s about right for us, during the times of year that it gets used because it’s too cold and/or wet for hanging on the line.

We do about four loads of washing per week, for two adults, two teenage girls and two dogs. (Although our dogs just go naked so don’t particularly contribute to the wash load.)

Thanks for all the replies so far. And just for clarity, we use a clothes horse + most other surfaces able to drape things over as well as having an airing cupboard and we do try to dry outside when we can (but my wife has a spider phobia so bunging stuff out for as long as it takes to dry isn’t on the cards) – it’s only on the sort of days when things will dry relatively quickly.

However, with two young children that do lots of active things (horse riding, hockey, running etc) there is a near constant stream of stuff needing washing / drying and the tumble drier really is the only way of keeping on top of it all.

We have a three storey house, the upstairs is always warm so we hung a pole up above the top of the stairs with clothes hangers. A little obtrusive, but we’ve no spare room to hang stuff out and it dries stuff really well. It’s removable so can be taken down when not in use, which is never. Ok we could probably have taken it down in the summer but we didn’t bother.

We do about four loads of washing per week, for two adults, two teenage girls and two dogs. (Although our dogs just go naked so don’t particularly contribute to the wash load.)

How big is your washer?!! I manage 3-4 loads a week with just 1 of me!

A lot of you sharing my pain on here when seeing a perfectly adequate clothes line empty on a nice n breezy day and hearing the tumble dryer running……..

We do about four loads of washing per week, for two adults, two teenage girls and two dogs. (Although our dogs just go naked so don’t particularly contribute to the wash load.)

How big is your washer?!! I manage 3-4 loads a week with just 1 of me![/quote]

Just a bog standard washer.

, the upstairs is always warm so we hung a pole up above the top of the stairs with clothes hangers.

Our back bedroom. A 3m length of 25mm steel cable conduit from the workshop build…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/eaiztg]Indoor washing line[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

A friend of ours does not have one, he smells like a damp dog, you know when he`s in a room 🙂

My wife has a nose like a damp dog so she’d know if there was any hint of mildew! I’d buy a dehumidifier before I used a tumble drier.

How big is your washer?!! I manage 3-4 loads a week with just 1 of me!

😯 You know you can put more than one item in at once, right? I probably do a load every fortnight.

You know you can put more than one item in at once, right?

And many items of clothing can be worn multiple times without washing.

I probably do a load every fortnight.

😯

So at a minimum that load would be 14 tops, 28 socks, 14 boxers/trunks/tightywhities plus 2 weeks worth of towels, dish towels and bedsheets?

And that’s assuming you don’t do any sports, don’t wear any extra layers, don’t change after work, and don’t wear those nice Thomas the Tank Engine jim jams that your mum bought you.

We do about four loads of washing per week, for two adults, two teenage girls and two dogs. (Although our dogs just go naked so don’t particularly contribute to the wash load.)

How big is your washer?!! I manage 3-4 loads a week with just 1 of me! [/quote]Same here and I thought I didn’t even use it much. Got one load each of towels, work wear, gym/hiking/biking wear, and one load for everything else each week at least.

In a fortnight I’d have to wash 10 work shirts*, 4 T-shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 14 pairs of boxers and 14 pairs of socks. Maybe two towels and two tea towels?

That’d fit in one wash load?

*I don’t own enough shirts, pants, socks, etc to go a fortnight between loads.

P=IV
P=(your current draw)x 240
Convert to kWh – (P/1000) x Hrs drier is running
Cost = kWh x your electricity unit cost

I assume that the heating element switches on and off during the cycle, so using the length of the programme would be an over-estimate.

I bloody love drying the clothes for free and feel a bit dirty if I’ve used the dryer. We had the ’emergency fix’ to stop Hotpoints setting themselves on fire and the bloke commented on it still looking like new inside. We’ve got solar and I try and time the washing machine for sunny daytimes …which usually means washing line weather. I love being stingy …sorry eco-friendly.

That doesn’t help in our household – I estimate 2 or 3 loads most days – we simply couldn’t wait for things to dry naturally indoors nor wait for nice weather out.

I keep my head down and my wife does 99.9% of it though fortunately.

In a fortnight I’d have to wash 10 work shirts*, 4 T-shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 14 pairs of boxers and 14 pairs of socks. Maybe two towels and two tea towels?

That’d fit in one wash load?

Okay, so assuming no sports/bike gear, no bedsheets, no jammies, no trousers, no extra layers, no getting changed after work, 1 towel a week (grim), and that you wash your socks, grundies and towels in the same load as your good work shirts?

Fair enough.

I’m with johndoh. Two working adults plus two young kids constantly getting dirty plus clubs and activities means the washing machine is usually on once a day and the drier with it. Don’t have the room in the house to hang it all out and even if we had room in the yard it’s not much good putting stuff out at 6pm in October.

second option is hand in spare bedroom

Ah, so I shouldn’t buy new tumble drier, I should buy a new house? I’m not getting the economics of that one…

I probably do a load every fortnight.

Yeah, that was me when I was a first year student, etc etc.

Meanwhile, wife + two kids + dog + everyone doing sports and clubs + actually washing the things that should be washed like bedclothes and towels = operating a part time laundry business, minimum one wash a day + one tumble load is the norm. Otherwise we’d be wandering around in a damp house full of washing.

Thing is even with that much washing, a condenser dryer would have to be pretty damn efficient to pay back purchase cost very quickly.