Just recently GE introduced a heat pump powered washer/dryer combo unit that is so far getting reasonably good reviews. Why would I think this is such a big deal? Heat pump dryers aren’t new, nor are condensing ventless washer/dryer combos— the latter have been reasonably common in Europe for some time.
It’s a big deal because this might actually meet American standards for laundry convenience while putting another key piece in the easy-home-electrification puzzle which this Substack is about. Unlike the older Euro-style models, the GE:
handles American-size loads of laundry (4.8 cu ft capacity, vs. 2.5 cu ft or less for Euro models)
claims to do the whole wash/dry cycle in about two hours, including getting clothes actually dry and not just prepared for a clothesline
does all this on 120V 15A power thanks to heat pump efficiency, meaning you don’t need a special outlet and it won’t strain your electrical panel’s capacity.
New models like this don’t always live up to the hype. We’ll need to see more reviews of the thing’s efficacy and reliability over the next couple of years before concluding that it can change the game. But if it pans out— and/or if competitors introduce similar models that work well— it’s a big deal, because we’d now have all the pieces to complete a retrofit electrification of a typical home with minimal wiring and panel costs. And that italicized qualifier is key, because as we’ve seen over the life of this Substack, so much of the real-world cost and difficulty of home electrification so far has been in wiring and panel work.
Moreover, as with EVs, heat pumps, and induction, the new kind of washer/dryer will come with collateral benefits that just make your life better irrespective of the carbon impact. You won’t have to change over loads of laundry anymore, for example; and you won’t need a dryer vent, so you can put the machine anywhere there’s a water hookup and a regular outlet, and get rid of a large, inefficient hole in your house.
To recap, in the near-future world we should get to in a few years, the path I’ll be able to recommend for a typical homeowner with all gas appliances and a gas car is:
Put solar panels on your roof if you haven’t already. Should be essentially free for a leased panel install.
Get a heat pump, ideally a combined HVAC-and-hot-water unit like the one from Harvest Thermal that can use the water tank as a thermal battery. This is expensive, and will most likely require a new 240V 30A circuit to be wired up; but it saves the most CO2 emissions of any appliance replacement, the IRA should give you money back for doing it, and most existing home electrical panels should be able to accommodate it without trouble.
If your heat pump doesn’t do hot water, get a 120V heat pump water heater like the Rheem ProTerra that can be plugged into a normal electrical outlet and programmed to heat the water when power is cheap and green.
Get an EV which supports bidirectional charging and a home charger which does the same. If your electrical panel is full, hook up a load balancer so that the EV’s load won’t count against your panel’s capacity.
Get an induction range or cooktop, depending on the configuration of your kitchen. If your panel is full or installing a new high-current outlet would be super costly, look at battery-backed plug-in models like those from Impulse Labs or Channing Copper.
Finally, install a heat pump washer/dryer like the new GE model, and triumphantly turn off your gas service entirely.
I can’t quite recommend that a typical homeowner do all of this today— there’s a bit too much early adoption required, with the attendant costs, snafus, and reliability glitches. But the concepts have all been proven and we’re on a very clear glide path to scalable adoption, and that feels like an exciting turning point.