£6 for a load in the tumble dryer?

[whereisthejasmine]

someone on the news just said that it will be £6 per load to use the tumble dryer? is that right? I am searching online and the rates I see are more like 37p per hour a year ago - if that doubles its still less than a £1/hour.
Be grateful to confirm the realistic cost for 2022 as if it is £6/hour I will have to abandon it.

I only use the tumble dryer for bedding and towels and will continue to do so

We do all our drying in the boot room. We have a ceiling airer and a tumble dryer and dehumidifier. Most things get out on the airer with the dehumidifier on. It's amazing how much water it collects and to think that would previously be going in the walls is shocking. We have a 200 year old house so already draughty and damp! We got our dehumidifier at least 5 years ago from Aldi or Lidl it was around £120 but we'll worth the money. It's just started to leak so will be replacing it after the summer.

Re tumble dryer we use it for school uniform to save on ironing but now it's line drying weather we just finish uniform off in there. Plus we use it to dry pants socks wipes etc. And always do sheets in their they only take an hour.

No idea to running costs though sorry. We've got a condenser which I believe is cheaper than a vented one to run but heat pump ones are cheapest to run I think

According to my smart meter ours is costing 34p per hour (looked at cost with it on, switch it off and checked cost, took not on cost off cost when on =34p). Also realised the washing is dry and so didn't put it back on.
We used to have one that stopped when the stuff was dry but it was integrated so stayed when we moved house and we inherited the current one here. I suspect the cost of replacing it is more than the savings. There's certainly an environmental cost to upgrading white goods before the old ones are beyond repair.

Our tumble drier was costing a fiver a week, more or less. I've stopped using it.

We have a dehumidifier next to our airer in our spare room / office. I don't have the dehumidifier running while I'm working but once I finish, set it going, close the door behind me, clothes dry by morning.

Definitely have to keep the doors and windows closed though, or you're just attempting to dry out the entire environment!

The room I usually dry in is our windowless utility. It's great if I put the underfloor heating on, but that seems to defeat the object of tumble drying less! Without it, though, it's basically a cold, dank cave. Will a dehumidifier really make that much difference given little ventilation, no warmth from sunlight and low temperatures? I dry outside if I can, but not always possible.

What?! So how much will the launderette charge? We have one over the road use the dryer for all towels and sheets etc usually manage to bung in all that plus about 4 wet loads of washing for 3 quid as of yesterday!

Can someone link an airer? I need an idea of how much space one would take up. Can they be folded away? I don’t have a spare room so not sure how practical it’d be, especially as there’s 6 of us so potentially a lot of laundry

£6 is probably not true.

Here, a load of light poly cotton bedding, shirts etc is dry in an hour, and uses around 2.5 kWh

We currently pay 17.5 pence per kWh

A load of cotton towels takes at least twice as much.

Draping wet washing indoors or over radiators is a terrible source of condensation, damp, mould, and smelly clothes.

If you have no possibility of a washing line outdoors, hang them in the bathroom, with the extractor fan running continuously and the door and window SHUT.

A modern bathroom extractor runs for 100 hours on 1kWh of electricity.

@OutlookStalking

Drying indoors is one of the biggest causes of damp. We abandoned this many years ago (asthma/eczema) after a mumsnet thread allerted us to this!!

Yep, lived in a rental house with no tumble dryer for years, and while we dried outside as much as we could, living in Yorkshire means that is not a realistic option for most of the year. Always had horrible damp, constantly drying off windows and trying to air the house.

I will give up on a lot of other things before I give up on the tumble dryer.

Probably about right. Years ago my DM had to stop using her tumble drier (in 70s) because she just couldn't afford it. She used a clothes line outside.

I use a French clothes horse (ceiling thing) and then radiators but looking at drying on inside clothes horses too and not radiators.

If you really want to do it the old way just use a line outside.

TBH £6 an hour would be worth if for me as it means I don't have to iron!

I only wash and dry once a week though for a family of 3.

@Howmanysleepsnow

Can someone link an airer? I need an idea of how much space one would take up. Can they be folded away? I don’t have a spare room so not sure how practical it’d be, especially as there’s 6 of us so potentially a lot of laundry

heated and non heated airers:-

www.lakeland.co.uk/25891/Dry:Soon-Deluxe-3-Tier-Heated-Airer-and-Full-Accessories-Offer-Bundle?src=gfeed&gclid=f0926759dfd218a5463f051f689fbac4&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=f0926759dfd218a5463f051f689fbac4

www.wilko.com/wilko-deluxe-clothes-airer-14m/p/0107006?gclid=d9d4fe926c641b12501d9cd4db29d8e9&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=d9d4fe926c641b12501d9cd4db29d8e9&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PLA%3A%20Home&utm_term=4577679227735117&utm_content=Home

For comparison DB, SIL and 3.5 year old DS live in a 2 bedroom flat (lucky as it's well insulated and they have storage heaters).

They've always used airers to dry clothes indoors. DM got them a heated one but I don't think they've used it.

They're currently trying to buy a house though so will see an increase in heating etc bills.

Slightly off topic, but what sort of difference will a dehumidifier make to my drying times on clothes horses??
I wouldn't worry about being off topic.
Loads of posters early on answered a question that wadnt asked!🤣

I've always used clothes horses indoors. Never had a tumble drier (dryer?!).

I already barely use my tumble dryer - am lucky enough to have an airing cupboard, and most of my clothes can't be tumble dried anyway so it's really only bedding and towels that go in there. My washing machine spins really well so it's doable so far.

And of course in summer everything goes out on the line.

Thanks for this thread OP. Drying outside isn’t an option for us and we don’t have the space for a ceiling airer though we’d love one. Our indoor drying space is limited and I have found clothes aren’t drying and are starting to smell from being cold and wet for so long. We have been trying to save on heating bills but something has to give somewhere.

@mcdog

Slightly off topic, but what sort of difference will a dehumidifier make to my drying times on clothes horses?? And do I really have to spend loads, or can I get one of the smaller ones (that are less ugly!)

We use this one. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0060MY2KQ/ref=ppxyoodtbbsearchasinn_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Compact and neat looking. Full load of washing dries in about 4 hours. It's quite surprising how much water it pulls out. I like the idea of using the water on house plants. Hadn't thought of that! It draws 165 watts so by my reckoning, with the new price cap sitting at 20.8p per kWh, (0.165 x 20.8 = 0.34) it should cost under 2p per load...

I have an over bath airer like this, but use it over the stairs (straightened out like the last photo). Obv doing that depends on your stair/banister layout.
Also have a standing one similar to the Wilko one linked above.
Generally only use dryer to finish off and reduce creasing, unless I have a load of socks and pants and can’t be arsed to hang them first.

I dry underwear and socks and towels in the dryer , anything else I tend to use my lines but am lucky enough here in Denmark to have a big and warm laundry room in the basement with multiple clothes lines — those Europeans know how to build practical homes!!!

This is the table from the link @whereisthejasmine found ... it's from 1st April 2022 based on todays prices. Really useful, so thank you for finding it .. my tumble dryer is £1.62 ph - I'm using it today as freezing outside but not for much longer!

I peg out all year round, as long as it is not actually raining. I find things get dry, even towels and sheets.

On rainy days or very cold winter days I hang things up on racks and we have a Sheila maid in the utility room. Have not had a dryer for many years (had one for DCs' washable nappies but that was 16+ years ago).

Not aware of issues with damp. So yesterday, even in all the snow, it was sunny and windy enough at intervals to get a load of sheets dry outside.

I'm not being smug and green at all - I hoover daily and iron a lot as well. Like line-dried clothes tho. tbf we do have a big house so lots of room for dryer to stand and also big windy garden (live on top of a hill).

An alternative to a dehumidifier is to leave a window open. The moist air goes out the window.

I'm on a pre payment meter. Put a load in my dryer this morning. 2 pounds!!!!

My dd has a rare skin condition. All her bedding has to be changed everyday, her clothing has to be washed on very hot temperature to get the creams and blood out. I could cry

But yeah no where near 6 pounds