The Swiss don’t typically install larger washer/dryer units. We have tiny units with ventless dryers. Maybe the smaller units are more ecological to manufacture? In USA, I can do a load of laundry + drying in 90min. In Switzerland, it takes about 4-5h. I fail to see how 5h of energy usage can be more ecological than a bit of steam exiting the home.
Energy usage isn't measured in "time the dryer needs to run".
A typical US vented dryer has a 5500 watt element, although it doesn't use that amount of power continuously since it cycles on and off.
I have no idea how much power a typical dryer uses in Switzerland, but the heat pump ventless dryers you can get in the USA now typically use around 1000W when they are running. They typically take around 90-120 minutes to dry a load depending on how big it is and how much water there is to evaporate.
In EU a common classic dryer absorb 2000W, a heat-pump one around 800W. Of course they have a certain load limit, you can't dry an entire winter bed lingerie all together.
Anyway most washing machines (those who also dry and those who only wash) and dishwashers absorb around 2kW when they heat the water, for washing machines typically only one time (two if they also dry) for dishwashers 2 or 3 times. Running time depends of the program you choose: the quickest wash in general is 15' as the quickest dry, a typical wash for misc clothes is 1h/1h30', drying is 20' (much depend on how quick you can run the washer spin cycle, at 1500rpm 15' drying is enough in most cases). A dishwasher takes typical cycle is 1h30'.
Of course professional dishwashers run in few minutes, and they are far larger than the "standard 60x60x90 cm size", washing machines and dryer take the same times even at nearly-industrial product.
I’m not even sure how true that is with the latest all-in-one washer/dryer combos. The ones released in the U. S. just this year, one of which we have (GE) can do a full load wash and dry in about two hours, which is probably about how long our old separate units would take. Or at least close enough that we don’t notice or care. A load of blankets might be 2.5 hours.
And if takes a few minutes longer, the lack of a vent and the fact that it runs on a 120V plug more than makes up for it.
> I’m not even sure how true that is with the latest all-in-one washer/dryer combos.
Haven't used all-in-ones, but one possible concern: lack of pipelining (to use a CPU term).
I wash darks first, and when they finish washing I put them in the dryer. While darks are drying, I can put whites in the washer. When the darks are dry, I remove them, and then put in whites to dry. (Continue for any further cycles/types of clothing.)
With an all-in-one I have to wait for darks to completely finish before anything can be done with white (etc). Is this a problem for you?
It gives the humidity time to evaporate between heating cycles. If it's a heat pump unit then it wastes even less energy because it reuses the latent heat in the vapour to heat up the wet laundry. It's just stupid to vent out the humidity as vapour.
