Line up for some dry facts
Armfuls of damp laundry were flung along with harsh words. Pets fled, tails tucked to their furry lairs, and children chewing pizza over Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, were mildly disturbed from their cudding.
Just to set the scene. My husband has what is termed his ‘office’. It’s in reality a dim, defiant, dusty little smudge of personal space. A tangle of electronics, guitars, the couch of marital discord, (well you have to send them somewhere), and complete with leering drawers crammed with assorted treasured rubbish dating from the early 70s. It’s horrible. Apart from the odd exploratory poke of the vacuum pipe and pitching a strangled cry for dinner, I never go in there.
However, last Sunday, my curiosity was peaked when Himself, (in the nonchalant round-about fashion of the truly devious) asked how we might fix the chilly radiator in his hideous hidey hole. I found a useful video on YouTube showing how to disengage the stop pin in a jammed rad and low and behold, with the tweak of a needle-nosed pliers, it worked.
Hours past when I noticed the synthetic bouquet of fresh laundry floating through the living room from male central. I curled an eyeball around the door, and beheld the horror of six sweatshirts and the custard yellow fleece spread out to dry on the spare bed. No towel set beneath the soggy garments, no open window, just a recently perked radiator stirring choking humidity in the tiny room.
‘No!’ I screeched in a level, loving tone of utter respect. “What in God’s name are you doing, you complete frat house fool?’
At 6’5 and always protective of his new cache of extra large clothes from the Big n’ Tall department, he wasn’t going to let me touch his blessed new duds. Having dried acres of fatigues flat through his army career, and the wasteland of a bachelorhood studded with broken hearts and Chinese take-aways, my attention to his drip-drys was perceived as a deeply personal threat.
Already bruised by the open derision of my housekeeping, I fended off some hasty Googling to support his argument that drying indoor was peachy keen. Spurred on by a pause in the bawling, I drew myself up level with his nipples, and spat out some research stashed in my back arsenal through working on this very column. “Well, Mr Big Man,” (I was delighted with that, pointing out his inherent, er, bigness), “a study just published by the Mackintosh Environmental Architect Research Unit in Glasgow— MEARU,” I hooted emphasising with a few gibbon style leaps around the room, “has proven the dangers of drying indoors!”
It’s true. MEARU may not have impressed my pouting spouse, (I don’t think the diamond cuff will reach the Christmas stocking), but the practice of drying indoors has provided alarming results. The three-year research project determined that drying washing around the house has environmental, economic and health implications.
Placing wet or damp fabrics across radiators and clothes horses around the house encourages dust mites and a nasty species of mould that is implicated in the respiratory illnesses, including asthma.
In the increasingly airtight environment provided by modern, tightly insulated homes, the influence of up to 30% of extra humidity could be devastating over a full winter’s washing. One load from a typical machine cycle, releases up to 2 litres of moisture back into the air, and this often necessitates turning up the heating, offsetting any perceived saving made by not using the tumble dryer on a wet day.
The six sweatshirts and the custard yellow fleece are currently sulking on the line.
* When changing your dryer, vouch for an energy efficient, condenser or venting dryer, either collecting the water or venting the vapours out through the wall. Condensers blow dry warm, safe air back out into the room.
* If you must dry indoors, MEARU recommend choosing a south-facing room with some means of rapid ventilation (a window, mechanical fan vented to the outside, etc.) using natural heat and light. Conservatories with opening windows are ideal.
* Use your outdoor line as much as possible. If you have a covered outside balcony, use that for line drying on wet days. It’s the wind not the sun that dries your clothes. Finish the clothes in the dryer rather than using a full cycle.
* High spin cycles on a washing machine (1000-1400rpm) wring water out of the clothes more effectively meaning less work for the kilowatt devouring tumble dryer.
* Check for mould growth behind lifting wallpaper, under flooring, around wall tiles and window frames. Be careful to look around children’s rooms. Pull out the bed and examine dark corners in cooler rooms.
* Where you do find mould growth has got a hold, for example in a bathroom or kitchen, it must be cleaned out carefully to eliminate spores. Bleach is effective. Re-paint with a dedicated paint including mould inhibitors. Increase ventilation with a fan or by regularly opening the window to air the room.
* If you have no option but to dry indoors, consider using a dehumidifier to draw the damp out of the air as the clothes dry. Dehumidifiers are reasonably energy efficient using about one tenth of the power of a tumble dryer.
