Clothes Dryer or Dehumidifier?

[ParisApril]

My basement is damp and if I hang things to dry especially right now because we don't have the heat on yet they take ages to dry. 2 days and still damp. I moved my dehumidifier close to the laundry and they dried in a day. What uses more power; running the dehumidifier or running to dryer?

Any thoughts? TIA.

Edited to add: I am running the dehumidifier anyway because our basement is very damp to begin with.

[cheenya]

I take it you have an electric dryer?
I think it depends on a lot of variables, like the age and efficiency of both your dryer and your dehumidifier.
There is a device they sell that you clamp around a cord when an appliance is running and you can see how much electricity it takes. I forget what its called, but you can actually check them out from our local public library.
I would generally choose to dry clothes in the dryer rather than hanging them to dry in a basement, but thats largely because any time I start using our dehumidifier (mostly in the summer) I see a visible spike in our electric bill.