Drying washing with a dehumidifier in a shower room

[Ferdinand]

I'm playing a little with drying washing with a dehunidifier, as some here do.

 

Question: what level of humidity is required for it to be "dry"?

 

When I have done it in the past just using the ventilation and the bathroom radiator, I have accepted something like 35-40% as "dry".

 

I see that my (neglected) tumble dryer has a scale for "cupboard dry" and "iron dry", with varying times.

 

What humidity numbers do others use?

 

Cheers

Ferdinand

[S2D2]

I think it just determines drying speed past a certain point. For example, my dehumidifier has a laundry setting which goes full blast for six hours with a target humidity of 35%, idea being you shut it in a small room. I don't use this as I find just leaving it at the standard 55% with doors open dries plenty quickly enough, maybe 12 hours? The dehumidifier is right next to the clothes and spikes to 70something when they first go out. Clothes feel bone dry by the time it's back to 55%.

[Conor]

As our washer drier is too loud to use off peak, I'm currently hanging washing in our unfinished ES. I've a basic dehumidifier running on a plug timer for economy 7. If hung out in evening, everything is dry by the next morning. Think it's using about 1.5kWh, so about half of what the drier would use and it's a double load. I have the dehumidifier set to constant running.

[Nick Thomas]

The new dryers with built-in heat pump are pretty efficient; https://www.energy-stats.uk/are-heat-pump-tumble-dryers-cheaper-to-run/ measured 0.78kWh for a load of washing.

 

They're still loud, though, and need to be kept somewhere relatively warm, or they get damaged. We've moved ours from garage to kitchen this week and it's pretty annoying.

 

Dehumidifiers aren't exactly silent either, though.

[Temp]

We hang our washing on a rack in the bathroom. Despite being used for three showers a day clothes dry in 12-18 hours thanks to the mvhr. It doesn't take much air flow to dry clothes this time of year wen the air is dry.

[Ferdinand]

Thanks all.

 

I am currently experimenting with the best way of doing winter heating with the heat pump and the gas, and it's been a bit chilly today at 4C outside all day.

 

I have a medium sized household ("10l") dehumidifier which has a humidistat controller which I can set by %RH, and also a timer. Unfortunately I have lost it - maybe need to check the depths of the garage. The last person who borrowed it is adamant I have had it back.

 

I tried it with the smaller commercial dehumidifier, but that seems to be overkill for the requirement, so I will send out a search party tomorrow.

 

Cheers.

[Gow]

On 28/11/2022 at 12:14, Ferdinand said:

I'm playing a little with drying washing with a dehumidifier... Question: what level of humidity is required for it to be "dry"?

 

 

If the search party is still out hunting tell them I bought a dehumidifier which has a "dry clothes" setting from Aldi several years ago, other makes available etc. This week Aldi is offering an electric clothes drier in the online sales, which claims to cost 11p per hour to run. BTW, I use captured water from the dehumidifier for my plants, much better than the nasty stuff that comes from the tap

[Radian]

15 minutes ago, Gow said:

BTW, I use captured water from the dehumidifier for my plants, much better than the nasty stuff that comes from the tap

That's interesting, I know the water from condensation is good for cleaning windows but not heard about watering plants. I suppose plants have been getting along fine for the last 500 million years without us feeding them chlorinated water so makes perfect sense!

[Ferdinand]

5 minutes ago, Radian said:

That's interesting, I know the water from condensation is good for cleaning windows but not heard about watering plants. I suppose plants have been getting along fine for the last 500 million years without us feeding them chlorinated water so makes perfect sense!

 

Some things like blueberries insist on that or rainwater aiui.

[Gone West]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

Some things like blueberries insist on that or rainwater aiui.

I never asked them if it was ok, but my blueberry bushes had to make do with tap water in the summer.

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, Gone West said:

I never asked them if it was ok, but my blueberry bushes had to make do with tap water in the summer.

 

They probably feel a little .. er .. blue.

 

You will never know the harvest you could have had, since they won't talk to you now.

[Gone West]

14 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

They probably feel a little .. er .. blue.

 

You will never know the harvest you could have had, since they won't talk to you now.

It's quite interesting that last summer, watering with tap water, they survived ok but didn't grow. Once it started to rain they looked much healthier and put on a lot more growth. The crop was down a little on the previous year but that might have been because the blackbirds had discovered them.