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My very old vented tumble drier has the option of full or half power, we always ran it on half power, as some times on full it would trip over heat on back, it would take around 90 minutes to dry clothes, but when we moved, faced with either drilling a hole for vent, or leaving window open, so we decided best option was a condenser drier.
Quick look and there seemed to be three types, water cooled, air cooled, refrigeration cooled. The water cooled only seems to be used with washer/driers, so down to two types, the air cooled clearly heats the air up in the room it is in, and the room we were using was small, so it seemed only option was refrigeration cooled, these needed a room over a set heat, and room not heated, but seemed unlikely it would ever drop below the limit, so heat pump it was.
But drying time was much longer, half the power used 600 watt v 1000 watt, but also double time 3 hours v 90 minutes. So seems no saving, but to be fair we did often have to switch the vented on a second time, and the heat pump one does take more clothes so not really a direct comparison.
When we bought the old vented there were versions designed to run over night with a 500 watt heater, so no real change, low wattage tumble driers have always been around.
But I have never owned a air cooled condenser drier. So out of interest how do they compare? Can you set them for a low power long drying cycle? And do they really heat up the room they are in? I set mine for a delayed start to con inside when likely to get more solar power, can the air cooled do the same, and if set to 600 watt how long would the air cooler type take? And is the heater on all the time, or does it cycle off/on like the heat pump type? Showing energy meter results due to the heat pump turning on/off it is hard to say how much energy is used, from the start one sees the power use slowly rise, the meter does show average today, but wife taken over laundry so no idea if large or small load, it shows monthly totals but since I don't know how many loads, not a clue as to cost per load, but at £3.66 hardly going to break the bank, so main point is it takes so long hard to dry two loads in daylight when the solar panels are producing.
Anyway can some one report how their air cooled condenser drier preforms so I have some idea in the future should our heat pump one fail a second time.
Quick look and there seemed to be three types, water cooled, air cooled, refrigeration cooled. The water cooled only seems to be used with washer/driers, so down to two types, the air cooled clearly heats the air up in the room it is in, and the room we were using was small, so it seemed only option was refrigeration cooled, these needed a room over a set heat, and room not heated, but seemed unlikely it would ever drop below the limit, so heat pump it was.
But drying time was much longer, half the power used 600 watt v 1000 watt, but also double time 3 hours v 90 minutes. So seems no saving, but to be fair we did often have to switch the vented on a second time, and the heat pump one does take more clothes so not really a direct comparison.
When we bought the old vented there were versions designed to run over night with a 500 watt heater, so no real change, low wattage tumble driers have always been around.
But I have never owned a air cooled condenser drier. So out of interest how do they compare? Can you set them for a low power long drying cycle? And do they really heat up the room they are in? I set mine for a delayed start to con inside when likely to get more solar power, can the air cooled do the same, and if set to 600 watt how long would the air cooler type take? And is the heater on all the time, or does it cycle off/on like the heat pump type? Showing energy meter results due to the heat pump turning on/off it is hard to say how much energy is used, from the start one sees the power use slowly rise, the meter does show average today, but wife taken over laundry so no idea if large or small load, it shows monthly totals but since I don't know how many loads, not a clue as to cost per load, but at £3.66 hardly going to break the bank, so main point is it takes so long hard to dry two loads in daylight when the solar panels are producing.
Anyway can some one report how their air cooled condenser drier preforms so I have some idea in the future should our heat pump one fail a second time.