Patent ID: 8375599

Claim:
A household appliance for drying a laundry item, the household appliance comprising: a treatment chamber to receive the laundry item; a closed process air circuit to feed process air through the treatment chamber, the closed process air circuit comprising: a blower to move the process air; a condenser to condense out moisture carried in the process air; a heater to heat the process air; a first measurement device to determine a temperature of the process air when the process air enters the treatment chamber and to provide a first measurement signal; and a controller to control the blower and the heater as a function of the first measurement signal; an analyzer associated with the controller, the analyzer to determine an energy requirement to dry the laundry item prior to initiating a drying process for the laundry item; an integrator to determine an energy input to the process air via the heater up to a respective measurement time; and a comparator to compare the energy input with the energy requirement and to end the drying process when the energy input matches the energy requirement.