My parents’ house has the washer and dryer in the basement but my mother has trouble getting up and down the stairs. So I’m kicking around the idea of getting a second set, perhaps with a heat-pump dryer. And Home Depot has a combination washer/heat-pump dryer (i.e., one appliance that does both) for $2500. That’s a lot of money, but they would need only a 110V outlet, along with the hot and cold taps extended upstairs along with the drain.
Yes, my gas dryer uses much more electricity than my washing machine\dagger. I measured to see if it was worth the trouble of only doing laundry when power is cheap. I don’t remember the exact numbers, because none of it was high enough to really matter. At the most expensive time, I think it cost $0.05 for a typical washer load and $0.25 for a typical dryer load.
If the air for the unheated laundry room is being sucked under the door from the rest of the house, then it still will have an impact on the heating bill.
I just saw that, too. The condo I rent out uses a traditional stacked mini unit, and the dryer vents into the bathroom. No matter what lint traps are in place, the bathroom still becomes a mess. Whenever that unit finally dies, I’ll replace it with one of the combo heat pump units. I’ll probably need a small one, which I saw where as low as the $1500 range.
The biggest thing, is that now I see them from typical brands sold in the US, like GE and LG. When I was living in the condo, and shopping to replace the traditional washer/dryer with a combined condensation unit, they were available, but were all strange (to me) European brands. They could be purchased in the US, but with essentially no support or service network.
\daggerWhen the washer is not doing a temperature boost to the water, and this also doesn’t count any gas used for the hot water heater. Generally I wash on the economy setting, where the washer uses cold water, but the cycle is a few minutes longer to supposedly clean just as well as using warm or hot water.
The dryer is next to an exterior wall and vents to the outside. If anything, there is waste heat from the dryer that heats up the room a little. I mean yeah there is a teeny space under the door from the kitchen to the laundry room and one from the guest bath to the laundry room but there is no way in the world that it makes a measurable difference.
It does if it’s the only source of air for the dryer. Simple solution is put a window in the laundry room.
Oh, I see what you mean. It has to pull in air to vent air. I wonder what the volume of air is per load.
Nevertheless, I am in Santa Barbara. No aircon and the heater is only used for parts of three or four months and even then is only on for 20% of the day at the very most, usually less.
You may want to mention this to a knowledgeable sales rep when looking at heat pump dryers. This video (@9:40) the guy says the ambient air temp the dryer pulls in can affect a heat pump dryer. They run at lower temps anyway (good for your clothes but takes longer to dry) and have no actual heating element. If the air outside is cold it may adversely affect the dryer.
Where those lines are drawn I do not know but something to think about. While SF has most moderate temps it can get hot or cold which might affect the dryer’s performance.
Thanks, it’s a good idea (assuming I can find one).
In California I do not believe so. But California has to purchase a lot of it’s power from out of state. Possibly from states where coal is used.
I like my gas dryer. But y’all have sold me. When it dies I’m looking into a heat pump dryer.
I guess that’s your idea of a cite.
I live in California I am not going to look up all the newspaper articles about our power grid and how it is underpowered and power is being imported. They are trying to keep the double D’s on line for another year to keep from having rolling black out. There was several TV news articles about it. Also request from the Govenor not to recharge electric cars in the evening. So my site is a life lived here and knowing people working for the utility.
LOL I went from Electric to Natural Gas
My gas hot water heater closet is directly behind the utility room wall.
Required Short run of black pipe through the wall, valve, and 1/2" flex line to the dryer. IIRC the parts were about $75 and plumber labor $175. The plumber disconnected the gas piping from the hot water tank, new fittings with a T, and reconnected.
Heck the gas flex line is over $42 including sales tax https://www.homedepot.com/p/BrassCraft-Safety-PLUS2-1-2-in-O-D-Gas-Dryer-and-Range-Installation-Kit-w-Thermal-Excess-Flow-Valve-60-500-BTU-PSCTE1106-K5/304227958
1/2" Gas valve is almost $13 including sales tax https://www.homedepot.com/p/BrassCraft-1-2-in-OD-Flare-x-1-2-in-FIP-Gas-Ball-Valve-PSSD-41/100132413
I also installed a Co detector in the hallway outside the utility room.
I used electric dryers for 40 years. My parents had a gas dryer.
Always wanted gas because they’re cheaper to operate and they dry a load quicker. 40 minutes in an electric vs. 30 in a gas dryer. That adds up quick if you wash & dry even 2 loads a week.
Modern gas dryers don’t have a standing flame. Electronic ignition lights the burner and there’s Co detection if the flame is dirty. Excess Co shuts off the gas valve.
Not challenging whether California imports power, at least sometimes. Challenging your original cite of an article that compares gas and electric dryers, where gas comes off better environmentally solely compared to coal-fired sources of electricity, and the best you can say is that “possibly” some of the power imported by California comes from states where coal is used. Not very compelling as part of a comparison, not a very compelling article to shore up your argument.
I guess we have a different sense of time. 10 minutes longer to wash a load of laundry is not noticeable to me at all. I have no urgent need to start a second load where 10 minutes affects me in any way. Indeed, my heat pump dryer is even slower than those and it still doesn’t matter (2-3 loads per week). I have been told the lower temps are better for your clothes too (doesn’t wear them out as fast) but not sure if that is just marketing hype.
Elastic fibers break down under high heat, so a lot of athletic wear says to hang dry or tumble dry with no heat. Even non-athletic clothing nowadays has at least a little bit of polyester/spandex in it, either for stretchiness, waistbands, or for anti-wrinkle properties. High heat can definitely damage that over time.
I said possibly because that could change day by day and even hour. Depending on who has power to sell. Just pointing out that worse case it could be coal power that is being purchased, the public does not know.
This whole thing seems weird to me. Electricity is fungible. There is electricity on the grid and it comes from all sorts of places. Is it ever really possible to say whether you are getting power from a wind farm or a coal plant or whatever?
Unless you’re hooked up directly to the wind turbine or coal plant, I’d say no, you can’t say what the source is.
Sometimes you can get a good estimate, though. This page from my energy provider, Xcel, lists the breakdown for their power generation in Colorado. Using that breakdown (27% coal, 31% natural gas, 42% CO2 free) is probably as good of an estimate as anything for the sources of my power.
On my power bill, Xcel used to provide the tons of CO2 that I caused to be released. They stopped doing that a few years ago, though. I don’t know why they stopped, and I don’t know if the number was just an estimate based on my share of their total system production, or if it somehow accounted for where my electricity actually came from.
According to this page from last year on PG&E’s website (the utility we have where I live) there is no coal-fired electricity in the mix. The percentages are: renewable 38%, nuclear 49%, large hydro 8%, and natural gas 5%.