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philomathie t1_j94lmzc wrote

You would do well to replace it with a more energy efficient heat pump one. It will pay for itself in a few months, and then you're killing the planet less.

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5spd4wd t1_j94xixq wrote

Always someone telling us to spend a lot of money when what we have is working perfectly well.

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Foreign-Cookie-2871 t1_j9xrvyb wrote

Indeed I would prefer spending 600 euros (the cost of an efficient heat pump dryer) than to know that my dryer uses fossil fuel only to run.

Now, if I didn't have the money I would try to not use the dryer until I have enough money to buy a new one, but that is me.

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5spd4wd t1_j9zn9ce wrote

My electric bill is around $60 USD in months where neither heating nor air conditioning is needed. My electric company uses hydro-power, which every electrical thing in my house uses.

You do you, the rest of us will do ourselves.

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OldPolishProverb OP t1_j9653ox wrote

We considered it briefly, but our budget is limited and the unit is used much less frequently than when it was originally gifted to us. A wedding gift. The cost to repair was approximately a third of the cost of a new unit.

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philomathie t1_j96dwj4 wrote

Yeah, if you don't actually have the capital that is a good reason.

I would try and save to though, since you'll be spending a lot more money in the long run if you don't switch.

I was very reluctant to get a dryer, even though my girlfriend wanted one for years, and after getting one they are FAR more efficient and do a much better job of drying clothes than the old ones I grew up with.

The humidity sensors in particular are fantastic - no over or under dry clothes, and almost no creases!

Just take it out when it is 'cupboard dry', fold, and put away.

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kissemintheear t1_j963j7o wrote

It's a bit more complicated than that. Heat Pump Dryers are still pretty uncommon in North America and the ones that are available are very expensive. The least expensive ones that don't seem to have a bunch of negative reviews are priced similarly to a top of the line Speed Queen standard electric dryer and go up from there. That alone tends to put them out of reach of households that would benefit the most from them. They also haven't been around long enough to have gained a reputation, either good or bad, for longevity and maintenance costs.

Whether or not a heat pump dryer pays for itself and how quickly depends on the cost of electricity and how often it gets used.

Related example: I like Hybrid Electric vehicles. They're efficient, reliable, & low maintenance. But every time I've bought one I do a cost analysis to make sure it makes sense to buy a hybrid over the standard ICE model. Last time I think I figured we would have to drive it over 25,000 miles/year for it to make financial sense, which we definitely do.

There's certainly good things about buying more efficient appliances. Long term, it is [hopefully] better for the environment. And it's good to financially support companies who build efficient, high quality appliances. But that's a purchase that needs to come with some discretion. Not everyone needs to run out and buy a heat pump dryer right now. That decision should be based primarily on whether they can afford it and whether it will provide them with tangible benefits.

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Diablo-D3 t1_j95cpqt wrote

Once you factor in energy wasted by manufacturing, most modern "efficient" devices are less efficient than the ones they are meant to replace.

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King_Barrion t1_j9h65gp wrote

speaking of efficiency it is insane how wrong you were about opus 7 years ago

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Diablo-D3 t1_j9ido37 wrote

I was never wrong about it.

I don't agree with Xiph resampling everything to 48k. Their reasoning is so it makes embedded platform much lower computation as they only support 48k, but that effectively pigeon holes Opus, unfairly, as a telephony codec only.

When I last did an audio codec efficiency shootout at virtually lossless quality, using a wide range of music that I resampled to 48k using SoX VHQ (so it was apples to apples), Opus basically won; in a 44.1khz native shootout, Opus was still near the top.

I did that shoot out about a decade ago. Opus was already in use as the internet's telephony codec by then, as all the popular platforms already switched to it as it was technically superior.

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