Efficiency

[dyqik]

Ventilation must be a significant factor. A room with a couple of changes of air per hour will replace the moist air with ambient several times over while a batch of laundry dries.

Whether we are drying by heat or dehumidification, clearly we need a room without too much ventilation to do it efficiently.

For example, a small metal "room" that agitates the clothes.

[Martin_B]

Ventilation must be a significant factor. A room with a couple of changes of air per hour will replace the moist air with ambient several times over while a batch of laundry dries.

Whether we are drying by heat or dehumidification, clearly we need a room without too much ventilation to do it efficiently.

If the air ventilating the room is of lower relative humidity than the air in the room, then ventilation becomes the most efficient method of drying clothes. This is something which humans have known for centuries.

[IvanV]

If the air ventilating the room is of lower relative humidity than the air in the room, then ventilation becomes the most efficient method of drying clothes. This is something which humans have known for centuries.

Lower water content rather than lower RH, assuming the entering air is adjusted to the temperature of the room. Cold air can be "dry" even though it has high RH at its own temperature.

[IvanV]

Ventilation must be a significant factor. A room with a couple of changes of air per hour will replace the moist air with ambient several times over while a batch of laundry dries.

Whether we are drying by heat or dehumidification, clearly we need a room without too much ventilation to do it efficiently.

For example, a small metal "room" that agitates the clothes.

Where ventilation is the most efficient method ... and I explicitly accepted that point. My point is that the heat economics may be quite different in a large room of masonry construction, which is what motivated the original question.