New washer and dryer

Something to note on washers is that the 'eco' modes are generally about water saving, not power saving. This isn't particularly useful here with no domestic water charges - unless you're on a well.

There is nowhere near as much scope to save on power as heating water electrically is a standard calculation; and nobody is going to do a heat pump washing machine; particularly with the move to lower temperature washes (15, 20) meaning there's very little heating to do much of the year.

Fast spin washers mean the clothes may - if the load balances at the higher speeds that is - be a lot dryer going in to the dryer and hence dry quicker with less power usage.

If you are still a fan of hot washes and have a supply of cheaper hot water (solar water or an Eddi or whatever) you can still get some washing machines that will take in hot water for 60+ degree washes, e.g. these https://www.ebac.com/washing-machines/what-is-hot-fill

Using a Whirlpool myself for the last few years and does the job, don't have the model no handy as I'm not home but it's also handy to heat up the room (unless you move it to the shed like me and get a toasty shed instead 🤣)

Heat pump dryer. 2kWh per cycle instead of the 5kWh per cycle my old condenser dryer used to use. I have the cheapest Bosch, got it for €499 after I got a €100 discount from PowerCity (showing them I could get it from a dodgy online crowd for €499, not telling them there was substantial shipping cost on that too 😁)

This makes a huge difference in my electricity use as we run I'd say 12 cycles per week, that's 12 cycles * 3kWh * 50 weeks = 1.8MWh saved 😶

It does take substantially longer though, about 4 hours for a full 8kg load of mostly cotton

This one I think (check powercity, there seems to be a slightly cheaper "end of line" of these available)

Don't get a Hotpoint, the one we had, had a stupid design point where they used small plastic units in the drum door. They kept breaking. Was fixed all the time under warranty, but still annoying. After the guts of a year, I demanded and got my full money back

Even if I ran my heat pump dryer exclusively on my 5c night rate, my electricity savings are 1800kWh * 5c = €90 per year

That doesn't quite justify financially to dump your old perfectly working one and buy a new one, of course. Even if heavily used (like mine). Very different for someone on a flat rate of 30c, then the savings would be €540 per year

At €499, the heat pump dryer is of course only a little bit more expensive than a condensor dryer, so if the time comes to replace your old one, you should go for a heat pump one

the hoover heatpump drier i have will dry a load for about 900 watts in 2.5 hours.. 8kg.. i dont jam it full.. i had a condenser that used at least 2.5kwh or more to dry a load.. i picked up the heatpump one on adverts and sold the condenser for about the same so cost very little.. seems to be no getting away from using a drier in our house especially for november/december/january..

Hadn't thought of these being available but it makes sense

I've got a dishwasher that will take up to, erm, something quite hot on the input and is plumbed to the hot due not having a spare cold near it, rather than due to the water already being hot.

But if/when that house is ever replumbed I'll be keeping that, and your suggestion now, in mind. Has a lot of south facing roof - bungalow - so some tubes would fit alongside PV

+1

If a regular condenser dryer belches out moisture, there is something wrong with it

And to answer one of your qustions: the amount of heat generated is directly related to the electricity the dryer consumers. In my case it went down from 5kWh per cycle (8kg) to 2kWh per cycle when I bought a heat pump dryer, so 60% less heat generated

It is confusing how any device can run longer but use less electricity. But they do when on the right settings. New dishwashers and washing machines can take 3+ hours to run. I put energy plugs on them to test the eco settings and they do use less energy. They 'slosh' the water around a lot more which cuts down the expensive part of heating the water.

Same with the heatpump dryers.They use less energy turned into heat so run 'low and slow'. Plus the refrigerant in them makes them more energy effective than a condenaing one.

Check the usual maintenance stuff like filters clear. Manual will step thru the troubleshooting process. Try will less clothes in the machine too and see of that helps. Shouldn't use more energy once it's set to stop based on the dryness of the clothes..