Your tumble dryer costs £1.21 per load, but this setup costs just 14p – here's what you need

Getting laundry dry during the cold, damp months can be a nightmare. Leaving clothes to dry naturally on an airing rack can take forever – I live in a basement flat and there are times when the clothes will have been hanging out for a week or more and still feel damp to the touch, at which point they're also starting to smell musty.

There's also the concern that adding all that extra moisture into the air, at a time of year when having the windows open regularly isn't feasible, will make your home damp, or exacerbate an existing damp problem. I don't have space for a tumble dryer, but if you do, there are the energy costs to worry about.

According to UK aircare appliance brand Meaco, there's a solution: the dream setup is a fan plus a dehumidifier. This apparently delivers efficient drying, for an impressively low running cost, and without adding extra moisture into the air.

Naturally, you might be skeptical about taking this advice at face value, given the brand specializes in dehumidifiers and fans, but Meaco has used a controlled test to come to this conclusion, and the tests can easily be repeated in your own home.

While the specifics might vary, the overall takeaways are pretty convincing. Let's take a closer look at the test, and the results…

The test

The test used 13 adult-sized T-shirts to represent an average load of washing, plus a calibrated thermohygrometer to measure temperature and humidity at the start and end of each test. Each load of T-shirts was run through the same wash-and-spin cycle using a Samsung washing machine.

The following situations were tested:

• Natural drying, with no additional appliances
• A second natural drying test, to show the effect of repeated back-to-back loads
• Drying using an energy-efficient 20L compressor dehumidifier
• Drying with the same dehumidifier, plus a pedestal fan

The testers hung each load out in the same utility room, at the same height and equally spaced out. For the latter tests, Meaco used the Arete One 20L dehumidifier and a Sefte Pedestal fan. The fan was placed 30cm from the airer, set to oscillate at around three-quarters power.

The results

Meaco found the fan-plus-dehumidifier setup reduced drying time from 20+ hours (in the natural drying tests) to just two. That's also less than half the time of the dehumidifier on its own.

Now, those numbers will vary depending on the situation. I use a dehumidifier when drying clothes and it takes longer than the 4 hours and 45 mins quoted by Meaco here – I assume because the relative humidity levels in my flat are much higher than those in Meaco's test space to start with. But they're still some pretty convincing stats.

The running costs will also vary depending on exactly which fan and dehumidifier you use – Meaco is naturally using its own energy-efficient appliances, and says its fan costs about the same as a lightbulb to run.

Meaco explains that by using both appliances together, you shorten the runtimes for both. So the fan-plus-dehumidifier setup cost 14p, while using a dehumidifier on its own was 28p (due to the longer runtimes required).

Meaco puts the average cost of drying using a tumble dryer at £1.21 per load, and extrapolates that you could save over £370 annually by making the switch. You can pick up a very good dehumidifier for much less than that.

How does it work?

If wet clothes are surrounded by still air, they retain the moisture. Adding a fan inside mimics the job the wind does outside, to push moisture out of the fabric and into the air, speeding up drying. Setting it to oscillate provides a steady flow of air across all the clothes. The dehumidifier then removes the moisture from the air, so the humidity doesn't build up (you can get an idea of the effect the extra humidity can have by looking at the increased drying times for the second natural drying test).