Yesterday I washed a load of big, fluffy, brand new towels. Being big, fluffy, brand new towels, they soaked up a lot of water in the wash and therefore took a long time to dry. I set my dryer on the same energy-efficient settings I always use, low temperature and "Rotary Iron" (which means that it will dry until 20% of the moisture is left - I hang them up to dry the rest of the way). The dryer ran for 2 hours and 20 minutes on these settings, which is a really long time (I've hardly ever seen a dryer run for more than an hour).
I have been told by a number of sources that dryers take more energy generating heat than just tumbling, so it's generally better to use low heat even if the dryer runs for longer. But this incredibly long drying time made me think that perhaps there's some threshold, some point where it's more efficient to apply a certain amount of heat so the motor doesn't have to run for 2.5 hours. I don't know how to work that out, but perhaps the dryer with its internal moisture sensors could be programmed to do so.
I'd like to have the option of setting the dryer to dry in whatever way is most energy efficient, using heat or not, whatever needs to be done. I don't want this to be the only setting - with certain clothes you don't want it to use heat at all - but I'd like to have the option for things like big towel loads or bedspreads.
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