I'm trying to cut my electricity bill, and I recently asked a question about space heaters and got some great answers. Now I have a more complicated question: How to air-dry clothes in the Pacific Northwest. We use cloth diapers and those, combined with our family's clothes, mean we run the wash a TON. I tried drying the diapers out on a line in our yard on a few not so hot but sunny days this summer, and they were not dry even after a day in the sun! The reality is that we'd have to dry a lot of clothes in doors, dried only by the home heating and any other device we get.
Having searched the archives I've found a few suggestions, but no clear sense that any of them work well. Here are
1) A drying rack - this seems essential and not too controversial. Better than hanging them all over the house
2) dehumidifier - are these energy efficient? Are they the kind of appliance that breaks after a year? Do they actually dehumidify enough to get your stuff to dry?
3) high speed spinner - I found one online (can't find the link at the moment) - it seems kind of small - I'd have to do quite a few rounds of spinning to spin dry one load of laundry; and various reviews indicate that they break fairly quickly. Also I get the impression that they are a lot more popular outside the US, so that makes me wonder if we have fewer options here, thus worse quality - not sure.
So my question is whether anyone has had success air drying clothes in a humid climate, how you did it, and whether you have any using dehumidifiers, high speed spinners, or any other strategies. Thanks!