Energy efficiency is an important consideration when it comes to any purchasing decisions for your business. More and more, businesses are taking their carbon footprint into account, both to save money and to present a conscientious image to their customers and competitors.
If you’re considering purchasing hot air hand dryers, you might be wondering how efficient they are and whether they are a responsible choice.
How much energy does a hot air hand dryer use?
When purchasing hand dryers, it’s important to consider energy use. You may be surprised to learn that the electricity demand is very low—especially if you choose a high-efficiency model.
A conventional air hand dryer consumes about 160 Kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, while a high-efficiency model uses around 30 Kilowatt-hours per month. This means that you are using very little electricity per dry, which has a much smaller environmental impact than paper towels.
Automatic hand dryers offer even more energy saving opportunities. While push-button dryers operate for a set period of time, automatic dryers save energy by only turning on when they are actually being used.
Energy use of hand dryers versus paper towels
People often assume that using paper towels means that they are not consuming any electricity, but this is not the case.
Manufacturing one tonne of paper hand towels uses about 2.9 Megawatt-hours of energy, and every paper towel that you use is responsible for around 1.2g of CO2. The average person uses anywhere from 2,400 to 3,000 paper towels per year, which adds up to a lot of energy.
Paper towels also cannot be recycled, as the paper fibres are too short to be used again. Although purchasing paper towels made from recycled materials can reduce the energy required for their manufacture, that will be the end of the paper’s lifecycle.
In contrast, once a warm air hand dryer has been manufactured and installed, it requires no consumables and very little maintenance.
Hot air dries hands faster than cold air
You might think that a warm air hand dryer would be less efficient than one that uses cold air, as it requires a heating element, but this isn’t necessarily the case.
Hot air evaporates the water on hands much more efficiently than cool air, so the time spent using the dryer is much shorter, using less electricity overall.
Energy-efficient hot air hand dryers from Tekflo®
All of the hand dryers in the Tekflo® range offer great energy saving opportunities. By harnessing efficient hot air drying and eco-friendly design, they dry hands in a matter of seconds, saving you time and electricity.
Take a look at our full range of air hand dryers or get in touch to find out more.
