I tweeted about our airer today on twitter. For ten years now it has helped dry our clothes, sheets and towels.
Now obviously every house and situation is different. I know that, but it's hard to get across on a tweet. But for us it has been a great money saving device we have used pretty much every day we've been here, summer, winter, whenever we can.
Now obviously it can put damp in your house, but we have two log burners so winter heat is never much of a problem, but a modern central heated house might struggle a bit. When a fire is going it'll generally dry a load of washing in a day, as the heat rushes up into this space. So if I keep on top of it I can have it on rotation. My problem is always putting the washing away to be honest!
Who else dries their clothes like this?
I remember those from when I was a child and I am weighing up the pros and cons of having one in my garage.
ReplyDeleteI think it all depends on you heat source or if you're willing to run a dehumidifier. We have the dry heat of a wood stove so seems to dry everything really easily.
DeleteThat is ingenious, I have never seen anything like this here in the States.
ReplyDeleteWhen I tweeted about it there was some in the states that use them.
DeleteI put one up in our house after reading about yours years ago. In the stairwell the same as yours. It's been brilliant, luckily we have upstairs windows right near it so I have them open when damp clothes are drying. I also use the upstairs horizonal bannisters for drying large things like sheets and duvet covers. They all dry in a couple of hours up there. I only use it though if I can't get the washing outside on a line. Like your house, a lot of the heating goes up the stairwell and it's just great for drying stuff. Thank you Kev for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing! Especially as that post was 10 years ago! I hope it's saved you some money over the years!
DeleteI have not owned a clothes dryer for over 30 years. We use an outdoor clothesline in summer and have a clothesline strung up in the kitchen all year. In winter, like you, our wood heat dries everything nicely. In winter we also turn off the hot water tank and heat all our water needs on the stove. We average 35 kw hours of electricity per week in winter. More in summer with the hot water tank on. Need to be creative with the high cost of electricity.
ReplyDeleteWe only ever have hot water every few days (the showers are electric) and plan around that. I'm planning on having the kitchen stove going much more this winter as I'm not even sure we lit that one last year. I really need to learn to cook off it properly as it has an oven and everything.
DeleteWe have an outside line and one in the polytunnel, but the polytunnel is too full at the moment to be used for that!