Another electric one (might be helpful)

[Singlebutmarried]

Hands up if you’re super lazy and tumble dry everything?

I experimented and went a month with only using it for towels and bedding.

Comparing the kWh Aug-Sept then same period Sept-Oct we’ve used 150 kWh less.

On our current tariff that works out to be £52.59 less (we’re on a fix of 35.06p per kWH). I was actually surprised as I’d never added it up before.

When we looked at our yearly useage it’s above average so we stand to save 1800 kWh just by ditching the dryer. Our useage is currently 6412 per year (based on last year)

We’ve also invested in an airfryer (1 month of not tumbling as much has covered the cost on that) so oven useage will be a lot lower too.

It’s a challenge now to see how low I can get it.

This month will be not using the dryer at all to see if I can improve on that at all. I’m aware gas useage may go up to help with the drying of clothes - I can heat only the room with the clothes airier in rather than the whole house (compared to the same period last year we’ve used less though 11 units of gas this vs 18 units last year) I’m thinking last year was colder as according to FB we’d already lit the fire by now too.

I’ll admit to never really thinking too much about it before, but now I’ve set myself a goal and I’m going to get useage down even more.

I bought a heat pump dryer. Was quite expensive but hardly uses any electric

I also am careful about what clothes go in the dryer as it's really not good for a lot of them. It's a solution of last resort here.

Where possible line dry, timing washing to coincide with good weather.

Use airer for most of my clothes, towels and sheets sometimes go over the curtain rails, as do the socktopuses and clothes on hangers.

The bannister in our old house was brilliant for drying bedding over and doubling as a cat tent but the landing in our current house is smaller so no space.

Sometimes in winter the towels, most of DP clothes and a big load of socks and pants might go in the dryer.

The airer in the greenhouse trick is genius, if I'd thought of that I would have patched up ours that got badly wind damaged to do that.

No the dryer doesn’t help in this situation for me, my dryer creates more moisture in the rooms than removing it 🤣 is a dryer not pumping out hot wet air? I have a condenser dryer that’s exactly what it does

I have bought a dehumidifier because I think it’s a good cheap investment - along with spinning clothes on 1400rpm, and maybe drying them for 30 mins whilst they are slightly damp this has reduced humidity in my house
I do have the windows cracked slightly in the rooms with laundry in them

My machine does a quick every day wash for 59 minutes. An eco quick wash is 1h24 but uses half the energy according to the manual. It’s temp difference the first defaults to 60 degrees, latter is just 20 degrees.

check the manual of your washer.
often the eco cotton cycle is the most energy effjcient.
quick cycles are often not for a full liad and they use a lot of water. sometimes they only have 1rinse cycle.

careful with the time saver button, some machines just remove one rinse cycle (check the manual).

for drying - extra spin after washing makes a big difference to reduce drying time. both for on the line and tumble dryer.

I am wary of indoor drying/damp. But HATE the washing line-rain (or darked on) feeling of "Arghhh, we need to bring the washing in off the line". So am putting the washing on an airer which, when DH or I are working from home can be popped out on the patio when the weather is dry. Which if it begins to rain (or get dark) can really easily be lifted into the house and plonked in the futility room.

Yes, it depends on your machine! My eco wash is 2+ hours and can't be set lower than 40. Regular wash I have much more control over, so comes out cheaper how I set it. Default is 2.5 hours at 60 but I change this.

I'm lucky to have a laundry room so I can hang things up there to dry. The only thing I tumble dry is towels as the children find them scratchy (I quite like them like that myself!)
Or urgent last minute forgotten PE kit. It's a heat pump dryer though which is cheaper to run.

My washing machine has an app that tells me how much power it s using.
Regular cotton wash at 30 (approx an hour) costs 11p
Eco wash at 40 (approx 2.5hrs) costs 3p. I was stunned.

So the longer and slightly hotter wash is much cheaper cos there is less ‘moving’ and slower heating.

It really is worth checking your manual.

We have a heat pump dryer which is surprisingly economical. I have always used the outside to dry stuff as much as possible but recently have been even more conscious and plan laundry round dryer days. This is so much easier as I now wfh more often so I’m not restricted to just weekend laundry.

Oh and those costs are total not per hour.

I mean this in a nice way but have you tried cleaning the seals. Your dryer’s job is to condense the steam back to water, mine only pumps out steam if it’s not sealing properly due to fluff.

It’s a washer dryer A+++ rated Indesit condenser and it’s all clean seals and filters. It generates a lot of heat in the room it’s in, but it is not a dry type of heat, no dryers are. It pumps all the condensed water straight down the drain. When the dryer finishes and I open it, the room is filled with pretty moist, hot air. I don’t really want more moisture in the air than I need indoors so I have bought a dehumidifier