I've just been reading the DIYFAQ on the above:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_Dryer
and have read quite a few threads on the ng about it too.

I'm considering setting a system up like this in the airing cupboard.

Question - most of the smaller/cheaper dehumidifiers seem to be Peltier
type (or I presume they are) rather than compressors.

How do these types compare for this purpose? Any recommendations?

Thanks
David

Don't even think about a Peltier device for any application, unless
you have no other alternative.

They are enormously power inefficient at cooling (from memory roughly
30% efficiency).

The advantages of Peltier devices is vibration free, solid state, very
accurate temperature control possible and can provide very compact
point cooling.

None of which sounds like what you need.

"Lobster" wrote in message
...

I've just been reading the DIYFAQ on the above:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_Dryer
and have read quite a few threads on the ng about it too.

I'm considering setting a system up like this in the airing cupboard.

Question - most of the smaller/cheaper dehumidifiers seem to be Peltier
type (or I presume they are) rather than compressors.

How do these types compare for this purpose? Any recommendations?

Thanks
David

Been doing this in the winter months for years so we have a "permanent"
dehumidifier in the utility room.

The original dehumidifier broke a couple of months ago, and I picked up one
of these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/156447 The cheapest I could find.
It's all you need and it works a treat. It's pretty small and comes with a
drain pipe so you don't need to empty it all the time (so long as you have a
drain available).

The key to drying clothes is to keep the air moving around and the fan in a
dehumidifier just does not do a good job of that on it's own, so we use a
second cheapo office type fan to keep the air moving around the clothes.

Vortex3 wrote:

"Lobster" wrote in message
...

I've just been reading the DIYFAQ on the above:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_Dryer
and have read quite a few threads on the ng about it too.

I'm considering setting a system up like this in the airing cupboard.

Question - most of the smaller/cheaper dehumidifiers seem to be
Peltier type (or I presume they are) rather than compressors.

How do these types compare for this purpose? Any recommendations?

Thanks
David

Been doing this in the winter months for years so we have a "permanent"
dehumidifier in the utility room.

The original dehumidifier broke a couple of months ago, and I picked up
one of these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/156447

Thanks. So is that a Peltier job (see post from Dom) or does it have a
compressor? Wickes is singularly sparse on specs!

David

The original dehumidifier broke a couple of months ago, and I picked up
one of these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/156447

Thanks. So is that a Peltier job (see post from Dom) or does it have a
compressor? Wickes is singularly sparse on specs!

David

I'm certain it's a compressor. It's pretty quiet but makes all the right
noises and the label says it uses 160g of R134a.

Vortex3 wrote:
"Lobster" wrote in message
...

I've just been reading the DIYFAQ on the above:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_Dryer
and have read quite a few threads on the ng about it too.

I'm considering setting a system up like this in the airing
cupboard. Question - most of the smaller/cheaper dehumidifiers seem to
be
Peltier type (or I presume they are) rather than compressors.

How do these types compare for this purpose? Any recommendations?

Thanks
David

Been doing this in the winter months for years so we have a
"permanent" dehumidifier in the utility room.

The original dehumidifier broke a couple of months ago, and I picked
up one of these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/156447 The cheapest I
could find. It's all you need and it works a treat. It's pretty
small and comes with a drain pipe so you don't need to empty it all
the time (so long as you have a drain available).

The key to drying clothes is to keep the air moving around and the
fan in a dehumidifier just does not do a good job of that on it's
own, so we use a second cheapo office type fan to keep the air moving
around the clothes.

Any idea how it compares to using a gas tumble dryer in terms of cost?

Tim

Been doing this in the winter months for years so we have a
"permanent" dehumidifier in the utility room.

The original dehumidifier broke a couple of months ago, and I picked
up one of these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/156447 The cheapest I
could find. It's all you need and it works a treat. It's pretty
small and comes with a drain pipe so you don't need to empty it all
the time (so long as you have a drain available).

The key to drying clothes is to keep the air moving around and the
fan in a dehumidifier just does not do a good job of that on it's
own, so we use a second cheapo office type fan to keep the air moving
around the clothes.

Any idea how it compares to using a gas tumble dryer in terms of cost?

Tim

None sorry....but I imagine it is cheaper.

Label says it is 220 Watts though I just plugged in my trusty Maplins
load-ometer and it says 19 watts.

Of course the compressor doesn't run all the time so this is just the fan I
suspect. Will check the meter later to see how many Wh have been consumed.

Typically we manage to dry 2 full loads of laundry in 12-18 hours. It's a
much more "natural" process than tumble drying which we use only in
emergencies.

D

Lobster has brought this to us :
I've just been reading the DIYFAQ on the above:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_Dryer
and have read quite a few threads on the ng about it too.

As others have confirmed....

Get a compressor type, with an automatic humidity sensor built in (most
do have, but worth checking). One with the option of plumbing to a
drain is better, providing you can do that - it saves you emptying.

Speed of drying/collection of moisture is dramatically improved if a
separate fan can be added. It needn't be be big, so long as it moves
the air around the room.

Over all it is much more energy efficient than a tumble drier.


I'm considering setting a system up like this in the airing cupboard.

Question - most of the smaller/cheaper dehumidifiers seem to be Peltier type
(or I presume they are) rather than compressors.

Stick to the compressor type, at least for this type of use.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Vortex3 wrote:
Tim Downie wrote:

Any idea how it compares to using a gas tumble dryer in terms of cost?

Tim

None sorry....but I imagine it is cheaper.

snip

You might also want to consider a compressor based tumble drier, such as

http://www.johnlewis.com/230232897/Product.aspx

Not cheap, but we're happy so far...

Andy

Andy Champ wrote:
Vortex3 wrote:
Tim Downie wrote:

Any idea how it compares to using a gas tumble dryer in terms of
cost? Tim

None sorry....but I imagine it is cheaper.

snip

You might also want to consider a compressor based tumble drier, such
as
http://www.johnlewis.com/230232897/Product.aspx

Not cheap, but we're happy so far...

Intersting but that would mean being unfaithful to my old machine and it
doesn't deserve that after years of faithful service. ;-)

Tim

Tim Downie wrote:
Vortex3 wrote:
"Lobster" wrote in message
...

I've just been reading the DIYFAQ on the above:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_Dryer
and have read quite a few threads on the ng about it too.

I'm considering setting a system up like this in the airing
cupboard. Question - most of the smaller/cheaper dehumidifiers seem to
be
Peltier type (or I presume they are) rather than compressors.

How do these types compare for this purpose? Any recommendations?

Thanks
David

Been doing this in the winter months for years so we have a
"permanent" dehumidifier in the utility room.

The original dehumidifier broke a couple of months ago, and I picked
up one of these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/156447 The cheapest I
could find. It's all you need and it works a treat. It's pretty
small and comes with a drain pipe so you don't need to empty it all
the time (so long as you have a drain available).

The key to drying clothes is to keep the air moving around and the
fan in a dehumidifier just does not do a good job of that on it's
own, so we use a second cheapo office type fan to keep the air moving
around the clothes.

Any idea how it compares to using a gas tumble dryer in terms of cost?

Tim

A 200w dehumidifier running 20% of the time equals 40w average.
Run for an 9 hour overnight drying cycle thats 0.36kWh, and that
will dry a few tumble loads in one go, so about 0.12kWh per load.

The John Lewis heat pump tumbler claims 2.1kWh per cycle, or
17x as much energy consumed. New non heat pump condensor
machines consume in the region of 5kWh per 6kg.


NT

On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:47:05 +0000, Lobster wrote:

I've just been reading the DIYFAQ on the above:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_Dryer
and have read quite a few threads on the ng about it too.

I'm considering setting a system up like this in the airing cupboard.

I tried it with an £80 compressor type from B&Q. I sat the dehumidifier in
the middle of a bunch of clothes horses on which I hung the clothes to
dry, so that it would be drawing in moist air from clothes on one side and
wafting dry air over the clothes on the other. Even running for 8 hours
or so it didn't seem to dry the clothes much better than I'd have
expected them to dry naturally in a moderately warm room.

I've now got a gas tumble dryer and it does what it says on the tin :-)

As to economics, if the dehumidifier could have got a load of clothes dry
in 10 hours it would be about 2.5 kWh of leccy at whatever price per
unit that is. The gas tumble dryer will do a load in 1 hour at 4.5kW (of
gas) at whatever price that gas costs. I cba to look up the unit prices and
work it out but given that gas is a lot cheaper than electricity it's
probably in the same ball-park. And you just chuck the clothes in instead
of artistically arranging them on drying racks, and you get them dry today
instead of sometime tomorrow.

The dehumidifier now lives in the bathroom where it deals with post-shower
steaminess.

--
John Stumbles

Ohnosecond
Instant in time when you realise that you've just made a BIG mistake.

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:21:25 -0700, meow2222 wrote:

A 200w dehumidifier running 20% of the time equals 40w average.
Run for an 9 hour overnight drying cycle thats 0.36kWh, and that
will dry a few tumble loads in one go, so about 0.12kWh per load.

How do you work that out? If it's running 40% of the time for 9 hours
presumably you could dry stuff just as well running it 100% for 3.6
hours. My experience was that even running 100% of the time it
didn't dry one load in about 8 hours, let alone 'a few' loads. As I said in
another post I reckon you're looking at over 2kWh per load.


--
John Stumbles

The clairvoyants' meeting has been cancelled due to unforseen circumstances.

John Stumbles wrote:

I tried it with an £80 compressor type from B&Q. I sat the dehumidifier in
the middle of a bunch of clothes horses on which I hung the clothes to
dry, so that it would be drawing in moist air from clothes on one side and
wafting dry air over the clothes on the other. Even running for 8 hours
or so it didn't seem to dry the clothes much better than I'd have
expected them to dry naturally in a moderately warm room.

My very effective set-up consists of 2 clothes horses, de-humidifier,
home-made buble wrap "tent" which ensures all dry warm air gets blown
over/around damp clothes.

This will do 2 x 7Kg loads (mostly cottons)from a 1600 spin and several
double duvet covers etc draped over the top of the tent.(dehumidifier
heated air helping natural drying process)

so 3 loads at once. Left overnight, all ready to bag up the following day.

Although the bubble-wrap tent doesn't allow natural moisture to escape
freely, from my with & without experiments the drying is quicker and
more complete with tent in place.

For cold winter drying the "drier" has a radiatore that forms part of
the process which cuts drying time down to around 80% dry by the time
2nd wash cycle has finished.

In article ,
John Stumbles writes:
On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:47:05 +0000, Lobster wrote:

I've just been reading the DIYFAQ on the above:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_Dryer
and have read quite a few threads on the ng about it too.

I'm considering setting a system up like this in the airing cupboard.

I tried it with an £80 compressor type from B&Q. I sat the dehumidifier in
the middle of a bunch of clothes horses on which I hung the clothes to
dry, so that it would be drawing in moist air from clothes on one side and
wafting dry air over the clothes on the other. Even running for 8 hours
or so it didn't seem to dry the clothes much better than I'd have
expected them to dry naturally in a moderately warm room.

That's not a sufficiently confined and sealed space.

I've got a 400W dehumidifier in a cupboard. After a 1400 RPM
spin, it dries one load of washing in about an hour, unless there
are any heavy cottens (jeans, towels), in which case 2 hours.
During drying, it keeps the temperature in the cupboard around
30C, and that combined with the air being very dry and the breeze
from the built-in fan works really well.

The condensate is used to provide water for steam ironing,
and for a few house plants which can't take tap water.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

"John Stumbles" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:21:25 -0700, meow2222 wrote:

A 200w dehumidifier running 20% of the time equals 40w average.
Run for an 9 hour overnight drying cycle thats 0.36kWh, and that
will dry a few tumble loads in one go, so about 0.12kWh per load.

How do you work that out? If it's running 40% of the time for 9 hours
presumably you could dry stuff just as well running it 100% for 3.6
hours. My experience was that even running 100% of the time it
didn't dry one load in about 8 hours, let alone 'a few' loads. As I said
in
another post I reckon you're looking at over 2kWh per load.


--
John Stumbles

The clairvoyants' meeting has been cancelled due to unforseen
circumstances.

Left the power meter on our dehumidifier which was on overnight. 2.4kWh. in
16 hours. 2 loads dry.

D