I know there have been threads about this before, but they all seem to focus on costs – startup costs for switching, and long-term costs for using. I don’t care about those things so much.
Which is environmentally better, all things considered, including the source of the electricity. I don’t have solar panels and I have no plans to get them, but I do pay extra for using at least some renewable energy sources for my electricity (PG&E in California).
I currently have an older Maytag gas dryer. I assume that to switch to electric, I would have to have a 240 volt outlet installed, and have a plumber shut off the gas in the old pipe (and, I hope, remove it as far as possible). Will there be any more to it than that?
Is there any difference in the way the dryer disposes of the warm air (and any lint that the filter misses)? Our lint vent line is quite long, going from the back of the garage down into the basement and out to the back of the house. If a new dryer can shoot the air up six feet so that it can then be sent to the front of the house through the garage, that would be an improvement (sideways to the outside is not possible).
You’re going to need a dedicated twenty amp (thirty amp?) circuit. Is one available in your fuse box?
At my parents’ house running the dryer at the same time as the microwave can trip the main breaker because they don’t seem to have enough capacity on their 100 amp service.
Typically 30 amp for an electric dryer. Dryer manufacturer will have height and length recommendations for each dryer. A 6ft. rise and lengths of 30 ft. or more are common. Keeping a long length of vent pipe clean can be a problem, it should not be buried in a wall or ceiling for a very long length. Electric dryers actually cause more lint fires than gas dryers do.
First find out if you have the electrical capacity. 2nd, run an outlet to your dryer. Everything else remains the same. The exhaust duct should work with your new dryer. block off any gas exhaust if there is separate duct work. Leave your hard gas line Where it is. The next owner may want it. Remove any flex tubing and cap the line. There’s probably a shut off valve farther down the line you can close off to make you more comfortable (not necessary).
I still have a gas line next to my electric dryer and it’s been there for 40 years. It hasn’t leaked yet.
I’ve never bought one, but if you want to go electric but don’t have the thirty-amp circuit available, I think a heat-pump dryer is an option. I think they run on 110V circuits, though presumably a dedicated one.
First, it’s the explanation I’ve seen for a higher rate of fires from electric dryers. But I don’t know what by what mechanism.
Second, gas dryers mix exhaust from burning gas with cold air to dry the clothes. Electric dryers heat cold air more directly. Electric dryers take longer to heat air and take longer to dry clothes. I’m guessing the electric heating elements have to run very hot to heat a reasonable volume of air to dry clothes in a reasonable amount of time and when the clothes become dry the exhaust gas unmoderated by moisture evaporating from the clothes reaches a higher temperature than the exhaust and air mix in gas dryers.
I have a Miele washer/dryer and they both work on a normal 120v outlet. Better, the dryer does not need any exhaust (nifty heat pump). Very efficient (environmentally friendly).
That said, they are very expensive as these things go (partly because they claim about double the lifespan of other w/d units). But I love them…great machines.
To the OP I replaced a gas dryer (washer was part of the one unit) with the Miele w/d. The installers taped up the exhaust vent (not needed) and the gas had a shutoff valve so that was trivial.
I will say, if you pay for your gas and electric, the gas dryer is probably cheaper to run. Maybe…
ETA: The Miele w/d are a bit small. They can do loads bigger than you think they can but still…if you have a big family they might be too small. For four people of normal(ish) size they are more than sufficient.
San Francisco, we don’t have (or usually need) an air conditioner. It would be possible during large parts of the year to dry clothes outside (in fact my husband does for some of his clothes, I rigged up a place where he can hang up about a dozen items) but we would still need a dryer for rainy, cloudy and foggy days.
The current dryer works for many fabrics but not all, any setting with any heat at all seems to run as hot as high. Or you can choose the no-heat fluff setting, which takes forever to dry anything. It’s all on a timer, no modern dryness sensors or anything like that.
The fires thing is concerning, as is the additional drying time of the electric. On the other hand,
This is also very interesting, and I will be looking into it. Are the controls at all complicated or difficult to understand?
eta: it’s just the two of us, a smaller capacity is probably fine. Further, I see they have a 4.02 cu ft capacity washer for $300 more, that sounds good. Same capacity as the dryer.
Why would you switch from gas to electric? 20 or 30 years ago I switched from electric to gas. My electric bill had a very large drop and my gas bill went up a little.
Gas dryer pulls very little current. If you run it in near peak or on peak hours the KWH will not be high. If you go to electric on peak rate for PG&E is running about 38 cents per KWH at tier one level. I think near peak is about 28 cents and off peak about 20 cents. All tier 1. But if you run your electric dryer it may push you into higher tiers where the rates are much higher. And if you have AC then you will need to run after the AC is off or the off peak hours. I think it is like midnight to 9 AM.
Environmentally. PGE buys any power it is short on from the open market. That will probably come from Gas or Coal plants.
If you add a large bank of solar panel to your house then you can change those numbers. You will be charged Net metering. That is over the month what was the net energy the utility had to supply you.
I have had 2 experiences with heat pump dryers. Both Bad. Washer dryer 1st time. none of the closes came out dry had to hang them around the room we were staying in. Small load 2 pair of jeans. 2nd time large dryers. Normal size load. After an hour of drying close were still wet. Divided up the closes between 3 dryers and restarted 90 minutes later everything was still damp. Had to spread all the damp close around our room to dry.
If you just want to do a normal wash it couldn’t be easier. Just toss your laundry in, spin the dial to “normal” and hit start. These machines can use soap cartridges so you don’t even need to pour your own soap (you can skip the cartridges and use whatever soap you want as you are used to if you prefer).
You can get more fancy though and select settings for things like drapes or linens and whatnot.
The dryer is a tiny bit more fussy. It has a lint filter (like all dryers) and a second lint filter (since it is not exhausting outside it needs to be better at filtering the air). It also has a third filter for intake air. That needs to be cleaned every few months or replaced (which is an added cost). The dryer tells you when that is necessary (it magically senses it…not a timed thing but genuinely when it needs doing). Super easy to replace/clean (replacing takes about 10 seconds).
Overall very easy to use but you can get fancy with them if you want which takes more button pushing. Thankfully the usual settings are on a dial. Just spin it to the thing you want and go.
Also, I never iron anything anymore. The dryer has a steam setting. Pop something in for 30 minutes and wrinkles are gone.
I will say the dryer has one quirk that takes getting used to. On normal setting your laundry still feel just a tiny bit wet when you take it out. BUT…it is so barely wet that while folding it the thing is dry. Weird but it works.
As noted these are about twice the cost of most w/d units but they claim twice the lifespan. I am all fopr well built, never breaks stuff so I love these. And, again, very efficient (like 5x more efficient than other dryers).
Pricey for a 4 cu.ft. dryer at $1699 from Lowes. Typical 6-7 cu.ft. dryers run half that. However, if the energy efficiency is real it should pay for itself.
1 Unnecessary replacement of a working appliance is wasteful in itself.
2 It’s not so much your energy mix, but where additional power comes from. You could be in an area that is 50% renewable and 50% fossil, but when you use your dryer that extra power will tend to come from the fossil fuel side, and any actual extra renewable power will go to you, not sent further out, again tapping into the fossil fuel side.
3 Igniting gas for heat is basically 100% efficient, it’s going to be hard to beat though there are heat pump dryers that can.
1 - So I’m not so sure it’s a good move at this time envirometally.
2 - It might involve a service upgrade from the grid. If you have 200 Amp service you can get by, at least for now, but anything less and the service line will struggle to keep up. Add to this that heat pumps are really a great cost saving way to heat, but require electricity, and EV’s are on their way too and we will need at least 200 amps and perhaps more soon.
3 - Read the manual, it will state how far it can run. I don’t believe there is any difference gas v electric as normally they are even the same owner’s manual, but different brands may have different distances. Due to pipe friction I don’t expect much variance though.
