Of all the things that I find would help immensely to reduce our reliance on condenser driers and help us to reduce our carbon footprints would be to monitor the weather and make suggestions about when might be a good time to put washing out and when to take it in. It's a simple concept but many people probably have no idea how much this might save them in energy bills and in their reliance on appliances.

According to a quick internet search: The average condenser tumble dryer uses about 5.2 kWh of electricity for a full load of laundry. Over the course of a year, the condenser dryer will use 617 kWh.

Additionally: There were an estimated 27.8 million households in the UK in 2020.

Multiplying out gives a total of 17.15TWh/year. This amounts to almost 5% of annual UK electricity generation based on a peak of 348.5TWh

A weather logger/predictor could reduce some of this wasted energy by helping people to make the most of outside weather to dry clothes the conventional, "natural," way.

Sometimes it's difficult to know how long washing will take to dry as that will depend on the weather at large. Wind speed, humidity, rainfall, sunshine and temperature will all have a part to play in determining speed of drying.

How might you know when it's likely to rain significantly and subsequently when should one put washing out or take it in?

The remainder of this article will discuss how to address these issues and optimise the process of drying clothes outside.