My old washer was done in half the time it took the old dryer. From a time management it's largely a wash, no pun intended. I'm not sure of laundry habits in Europe as a whole, but I suspect that many people, at least in Germany where the good machines are designed and manufactured, must do laundry at least 3 or 4 times per week. It makes sense since they don't bathe nor wear deodorant.

You should experiment with the timers, as I'm sure the machine(s) you're talking about have them. Also breaking up the laundry duties throughout the week.

On top of dealing with machine capacity and timing issues, we've also got tiered electric power billing to factor into the schedules. We can even monitor power usage hour-by-hour on the web, though I've never done it during a dryer load - too scared.