Household appliance, particularly for drying a laundry article

1. 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.

2. The household appliance of claim 1 , wherein the analyzer analyzes the laundry item and determines the energy requirement from a result of the analysis.

3. The household appliance of claim 2 , wherein the analyzer at least one of weighs and determines the composition of the laundry item.

4. The household appliance of claim 1 , wherein the household appliance washes and dries the laundry item.

5. The household appliance of claim 4 , wherein the analyzer analyzes the laundry item before washing the laundry item and determines a parameter for a washing process.

6. The household appliance of claim 1 , wherein the treatment chamber includes a rotatable drum to receive the laundry item.

7. The household appliance of claim 1 , wherein the closed process air circuit is essentially closed.

8. The household appliance of claim 1 , wherein a drying chamber is behind the heater, and wherein the condenser is behind the drying chamber in the closed process air circuit when viewed in a direction of the process air.

9. The household appliance of claim 1 , wherein the condenser is an indirectly cooled condenser.

10. The household appliance of claim 1 , wherein the controller controls the heater so that the temperature is kept essentially constant during the drying process.

11. The household appliance of claim 1 , wherein the heater includes an electrical heating element and a switching arrangement, the switching arrangement activated by the controller via a control signal and as a function of the first measurement signal in order to electively switch the electrical heating element.

12. The household appliance of claim 11 , wherein the heater includes a first electrical heating element and a second electrical heating element; wherein the switching arrangement electively switches the first electrical heating element and the second electrical heating element; and wherein the first electrical heating element has a first nominal electrical power that is greater than a second nominal electrical power of the second electrical heating element.

13. The household appliance of claim 12 , wherein the sum of the first nominal electrical power and the second nominal electrical power is about 2000 watts.

14. The household appliance of claim 13 , wherein the first nominal electrical power is about 1400 watts and the second nominal electrical power is about 700 watts.

15. The household appliance of claim 11 , wherein the integrator integrates the control signal.

16. The household appliance of claim 11 , wherein the integrator includes a second measurement device to measure an electrical supply voltage of the heater, and wherein the integrator integrates the control signal proportionally to the electrical supply voltage.