Usage behaviour and related energy consumption of European consumers for washing and drying

Abstract

Laundry washing has been extensively studied; laundry drying has been much less investigated. Nevertheless, there are indications that the drying process takes considerably more energy than the washing process. It is, therefore, the task of this study to gather European-wide consumer behaviour on washing and drying practices and to use this knowledge to estimate the energy consumption for the washing and drying processes. With an online questionnaire answered by over 2,000 households, the washing and drying behaviour of European consumers is analysed. The results also confirm the relevance of the drying process’ energy consumption for countries where the drying is normally seen as ‘done by the sun’!