Do they have gas dryers in Europe?
- Thread starter maytag85
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I've thought about this myself. I know Miele used to sell a gas dryer, but it may have been made just for the North American market. I'm sure Henrik or Louis can answer this.
Gas dryers are very rare here in Europe. Heatpump dryers are becoming the norm here for several reasons. Heatpump dryers are very energy efficient, but also there is an end to the resource of natural gas. There will come an end to natural gas as fuel for heating houses too. Only White Knight in the UK still manufactures gas clothes dryers. Miele stopped making them a long time ago already because they didn't sell in Europe. A lot of European people prefer line drying above using a tumble dryer, even if they have one. I suppose the extra costs of putting an extra gas line in and buying a more expensive dryer doesn't pay itself back.
Here is the White Knight dryer:
https://whiteknightdryers.com/shop/white-knight-eco43a-gas-dryer/
Here is the White Knight dryer:
https://whiteknightdryers.com/shop/white-knight-eco43a-gas-dryer/
Heat pump dryers are more energy efficient, but they take a long time to dry a load of clothes. Gas dryers are common in North America, and they can dry a load of clothes fast! More electric dryers are sold than gas dryers, but electric can be just as fast as a gas dryer, but some take a long time to dry a load of clothes. My Maytag DG810 gas dryer can dry a load of clothes fast, and does a great job at drying clothes! Gas dryers are more economic to use, since they only need a standard 120VAC outlet, but electric dryers require a 240VAC outlet to run ( 240VAC in North America is only used for electric dryers, electric stoves, electric water heaters, and air conditioning )
Well, the voltage isn't the problem. Everything is 230 Volts here. And if you want a commercial machine you can get a 400 Volts connection and a dryer that connects to it.
Well, some people think it's better for the environment to use less electricity. Some other people prefer line dried clothes over clothes dried in a tumble dryer because line dried clothes smell better. Yes, electricity is more expensive here, but not that much that we can't afford to use a dryer.
My mother uses a clothes line all summer. I miss the fresh smell but working nights it's hard for me to hang clothes outside and Tony can't do it since he's still laid up with his leg.
Two of our transmitters at the Greenville site use a 240V/400V 3 Ph for water pumps,blowers,filament supplies,LV supplies.It is a GREAT system-and MORE efficient.You don't have the LOSS with 120V systems.AEG-Telefunken from Germany and Brown Boveri from Switzerland.250/500Kw SW AM transmitters-they were installed here in 1985.
Brown Boveri later (1988) merged with Asea, the company that bought up a washing machine factory and from then on manufactured Asea Cylinda washing machines, later bought up by the furniture company Asko. Which brings us back to washers and dryers again. 
warmsecondrinse
Well-known member
Having 240v as the standard does make things simpler in some respects. There's no need for special wiring or having 240v "brought in from the street" as is often the case in the US. The extra cost of doing that, the fact that there's likely already gas piped into the house, plus that venting is likely not an issue combine to make gas a more attractive option.
That reminds me of my cousin's house in Poland. Back in the 80s random fuel shortages made it a good idea to have as many bases covered as possible. In addition to gas, wood AND cola set-ups for cooking & heating, my cousin had a standard outlet on its own circuit, like a washer here in the US often uses. He told me that the 4 electric radiators (think deLonghi) could keep the whole house habitable in winter. I couldn't figure out how that could possibly be the case...
Then it dawned on me that with 240v each radiator would produce MUCH more heat than its US counterpart, lol.
When I was in southern Brazil where central HVAC was not the norm, I learned it wasn't unusual for each room in a house to have an outlet on its own circuit near a window. A/c was plugged in during the summer and an electric radiator in the winter.
Jim
That reminds me of my cousin's house in Poland. Back in the 80s random fuel shortages made it a good idea to have as many bases covered as possible. In addition to gas, wood AND cola set-ups for cooking & heating, my cousin had a standard outlet on its own circuit, like a washer here in the US often uses. He told me that the 4 electric radiators (think deLonghi) could keep the whole house habitable in winter. I couldn't figure out how that could possibly be the case...
Then it dawned on me that with 240v each radiator would produce MUCH more heat than its US counterpart, lol.
When I was in southern Brazil where central HVAC was not the norm, I learned it wasn't unusual for each room in a house to have an outlet on its own circuit near a window. A/c was plugged in during the summer and an electric radiator in the winter.
Jim
Much more heat
Yes, that is right in theory, but I have never seen a portable electric heater with an element higher than 2000 Watts.
Yes, that is right in theory, but I have never seen a portable electric heater with an element higher than 2000 Watts.
mralex
Well-known member
White knight is the only brand that I know of that does one gas dryer
Huebsch (Speed Queen) gas dryers are sold here as an alternative for the White Knight. The dedicated website has disappeared though.
Correction on the electric heaters. I just found a few that have a higher wattage, 2200 and 2500 Watts.
rolls_rapide
Well-known member
Electric heating
This style of electric bar fire used to be quite common in UK homes, for living rooms, and sitting rooms.
(Photo borrowed from Pinterest).
My parents had one identical to it, which sat in the sitting room/lounge. It was 'Sunhouse' brand, part of Radiation Group.
There were 3 radiant bars, each rated at 1000W each: quartz glass with a spiral 'spring' of Nichrome type wire inside. The bars were switchable, controlled by two rocker switches: 1 bar or 2 bars, or both switches on, 3 bars.
In addition, the fibreglass 'coal effect' had two bayonet cap 60W 'fireglow' red bulbs, which provided the light.
Furthermore, under the heat reflector, there was a fan-heater type of cylindrical fan, which only provided cold air-current to agitate the 'flame effect' strips. It was controlled by a third switch.
There was a fourth switch, which acted as the main switch.
So you could have plugged in at socket:
Appliance off,
Fireglow on, no heat,
Fireglow on, flame effect on, no heat,
Fireglow on, 1 bar on, flame effect off,
et cetera...
right up to everything switched on. Full load seemed to be about 3120 Watts (maybe the bars were slightly underrated to allow for the bulbs and fan motor?) . I do remember the 'MK Electric' plug became warm to the touch when on at full power. The wiring in the flex was the old 'red, black, and green' colour code.
There was another Sunhouse fire which sat in the dining room. This was a little cheaper - no wavy flame effect. The bars on this fire were 'fireclay' with the wire element spiralling around the outer surface of the ceramic rod.
This style of electric bar fire used to be quite common in UK homes, for living rooms, and sitting rooms.
(Photo borrowed from Pinterest).
My parents had one identical to it, which sat in the sitting room/lounge. It was 'Sunhouse' brand, part of Radiation Group.
There were 3 radiant bars, each rated at 1000W each: quartz glass with a spiral 'spring' of Nichrome type wire inside. The bars were switchable, controlled by two rocker switches: 1 bar or 2 bars, or both switches on, 3 bars.
In addition, the fibreglass 'coal effect' had two bayonet cap 60W 'fireglow' red bulbs, which provided the light.
Furthermore, under the heat reflector, there was a fan-heater type of cylindrical fan, which only provided cold air-current to agitate the 'flame effect' strips. It was controlled by a third switch.
There was a fourth switch, which acted as the main switch.
So you could have plugged in at socket:
Appliance off,
Fireglow on, no heat,
Fireglow on, flame effect on, no heat,
Fireglow on, 1 bar on, flame effect off,
et cetera...
right up to everything switched on. Full load seemed to be about 3120 Watts (maybe the bars were slightly underrated to allow for the bulbs and fan motor?) . I do remember the 'MK Electric' plug became warm to the touch when on at full power. The wiring in the flex was the old 'red, black, and green' colour code.
There was another Sunhouse fire which sat in the dining room. This was a little cheaper - no wavy flame effect. The bars on this fire were 'fireclay' with the wire element spiralling around the outer surface of the ceramic rod.
Here in SoCal, a lot of people use natural gas for heating their homes. There are people in rural areas that use electric for heating ( Some people use propane for heating ). The house I live in has a wood burning fire place, and sometimes we use that for heating the house. I care more about the air conditioning, rather than the heating! LOL!
passatdoc
Well-known member
question for Louis re: gas reserves in north of Holland
Louis, do huge gas reserves in the North (Groningen, etc.) still exist, or is the field becoming depleted. When I lived there in the 70s, seems like gas was used to cook and to heat water (gas point of use heaters), and possibly for other uses of which I was not aware. It seemed logical at the time for a country without coal or oil reserves, but which had vast amounts of natural gas.
PS during the recent solar eclipse, the California electric power grid had to make arrangements to run additional generators to make up for the loss of solar power (it wasn't dark here, but the generated solar energy dropped), as if it were night. This happened because 40+% of electric power in California is now solar.
Louis, do huge gas reserves in the North (Groningen, etc.) still exist, or is the field becoming depleted. When I lived there in the 70s, seems like gas was used to cook and to heat water (gas point of use heaters), and possibly for other uses of which I was not aware. It seemed logical at the time for a country without coal or oil reserves, but which had vast amounts of natural gas.
PS during the recent solar eclipse, the California electric power grid had to make arrangements to run additional generators to make up for the loss of solar power (it wasn't dark here, but the generated solar energy dropped), as if it were night. This happened because 40+% of electric power in California is now solar.
We still have huge gas reserves, but the last years exploiting these reserves has lead to some serious earthquakes, so the resources will be less used in the future.
