£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'm not allowed to hang washing in my garden but I'm going to be doing it this year

If the management company complain then I can point out there is no room for a tumble dryer, gas and electric is ridiculous, and I can lift my airer into my neighbours garden a metre away and that's allowed so... (neighbour is a house, not an apartment)

@BertieBotts

A tumble dryer in the 70s is absolutely no comparison to the modern ones of today.

And as for how people managed before tumble dryers - they had fewer clothes that they washed less often. More natural fibres like wool, rather than polycotton which picks up sweat quickly and needs washing more often. Older houses were less sealed and "breathed" more meaning less prone to damp. Of course you can dry outside and use airers today as well but it's not exactly the same situation.

Laundry took a stupid amount of time and stretched over days (unless you lived somewhere with the facilities of Glasgow and its steamies).

You were in and out pegging the laundry on the line to dodge showers and rain. Badly pegged laundry ended up on the ground and might need washed again.

If you lived in a damp house, drying on a horse indoors took days and the clothes always smelt musty.

tbh, there were families who washed their bedding about 2-4 times a year because it was such a production that they didn't even want to deal with it during late Autumn, Winter, and early Spring. The whole house smelt of stale bedding.

The mustiness, damp etc. was plausibly a strong provocation for many people's chronic bronchitis and asthma.

@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!)

I put two loads of towels on the airer in the bathroom with the dehumidifier on and door closed yesterday afternoon and they were all completely dry when I woke up this morning. It's not big.

We pay £2 per load in a dryer at the laundrette.

£6 is extortionate

[quote whereisthejasmine]ah ha I have foudn something. This is what I wanted to know, link here in case it is helpful for others. Looks like a dryer load is going to be over £1 a load, but not £6 as per the lady on the news earlier this morning. So I can still use it but will use it sparingly (ie finishing off the washing that I have had out on the line)

www.nea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Electricity-Consumption-Around-the-Home.pdf[/quote]
I was just going to post that I'd worked out it will be about £1 a load, obviously depends on if it's towels or something light that will dry in half the time.

I've made a real effort this last month to avoid the tumble dryer, I have sort of half dried a load a couple of times when washing has built up, and also turning everything off when not needed and I've just checked the reading and I've cut out electric usage by 20% on the previous month. It won't wipe out the increases but it will help.

Drying inside I have put the clothes horse by the french windows where we get full sun in the afternoons, unless it is bucketing down I open the window a little at each end of the lounge so the air blows through and there are no signs of any damp and if it is a half decent day a load is dry in 24 hrs.

@playmelikeasymphony yes she gets dla atm but she's a teenager now and I'm not confident she will get anything come September when it's time to renew her claim. Fingers crossed though! Our dryer is old so I've applied to family fund to see if they'd find a new one that's better to run x

A dehumidifier near a clothes horse/airer works well, and I doubt it uses anything like as much electricity as a drier. Not cheap to buy, but at least it’s a one off.

Dried indoors for years in our flat. Never had damp!

Get a drysoon clothes horse from Lakeland. With cover it will dry stuff in a couple of hours.

If it’s a sunny day I put my washing on a clothes horse and put it in the greenhouse if it’s warm in there 🤣

If you run a 1kw appliance for 1 hour you pay 1 kWh. That’s about 30p on my tariff.
So if your appliance is 2kw and you run it for 1 hour you pay 2kwh or 60p.
My drier is about 2kw so costs about 60p to run per hour. Some days in the past I’ve had it all on day drying multiple loads. Say you run it 10 hours per week that’s 60p x 10 x 52 = £312 per year.

I'm not sure who is spending £6 for a load to tumble dry. A 9kg vented tumble dryer uses about 5.5 kWh to complete a full cycle and at variable capped electricity rates at about 29p/kWh, that is £1.60 a load.

I’ve bought a 2nd hand spin dryer £20 off eBay
Spins at 2800rpm compared with washer 1400rpm
Quite vicious so only spin things like underwear bedding towels but 4 minute spin cuts drying time massively

I've just been trying to work out how much my dehumidifier costs to run, and saw when I googled it that the one I have, which is excellent still at about 5 years old, is currently half price at Argos if anyone's thinking of getting one (the Meaco 20 litre one - bought cos of recommendations on here!)

I had been thinking about getting a dryer, but after reading this about costs, I'll stick with the dehumidifier and heated airers. Didn't realise they cost so much to run.

@FourTeaFallOut

I'm not sure who is spending £6 for a load to tumble dry. A 9kg vented tumble dryer uses about 5.5 kWh to complete a full cycle and at variable capped electricity rates at about 29p/kWh, that is £1.60 a load.

OP corrected it upthread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/4518923--6-for-a-load-in-the-tumble-dryer?msgid=116291130#116291130

I dry on a rack indoors. We don't get damp but my washing machine does spin very well so they're practically dry when they come out and dry overnight - even thick hoodies.

That said my heating is now going to be set far lower so hoodies and towels may take longer.

I do miss a fluffy towel though. >>sighs

@Handsnotwands

Have you anywhere you can put a pulley maid? We have one in our stairwell. It fits a whole load of washing and dries really quickly

We abandoned the tumble dryer a while ago

This is genius, can you share a photo of it please

It's rather going to be +- £1.00. Definitely not £6.00. I stopped using tumble dryer ages ago. Only use it to dry towels or bedsheets (eventually something heavy like my husband's jumpers etc.). I prefer air drying, clothes keep the smell of washing powder (Lenor dryer sheets don't work for me). No problem with damp, but we always keep the house warm.

Obviously it’s not going to be £6 a load!

I've been watching this for weeks now.My smart meter this week when I had 1 long ( 2 hr) wash, 1 short (1hr27)wash and 1 tumble dry plus all the usual was 2.70 pounds for the day.
It is the standing charge that is seeing the biggest increase from 24.03 pence a day to 41.66 pence a day ( EON) . The KW charge is going from 21.55 to 29.48 per kw. As of today my smart meter is still sitting at the old prices.

I no longer have a washer dryer as they seem to break down faster.

Local launderette charges £1/10mins for their dryers. So yeah, £6/hr where I am.

I saw this on ticktok and have done it a few times - thought as it has not been mentioned on this post by anyone yet, some of the posters might like to give it a try.
I have done it a couple of times but we dont have heating on in the day (they are all out all day, its just me here, so I just wear lots of jumpers!) but when I did it, with the heating on, it worked really really well.

Put the airer next to a radiator, cover it with a sheet, tuck the other end of the sheet in the back of the radiator and then make sure the heating is on.

I used a fitted sheet so I could tuck it under the airer and round the radiator and put some books on the radiatior to stop it pinging off.

@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!!

Yes agree. We once had tenants who dried clothes all over the place then complained about getting mould on their other personal possessions - never mind what it did to our property. We had to rectify with different type of extractors as tenants were too lazy to switch on and extra air bricks to the overall construction.It's a disaster for a property.

Clothes horse+ Dehumidifier + open the windows. The dehumidifier is on at most 2 hours a day cos it's expensive to run.

We had a Lakeland heated airier but it's wrecked our paintwork with mould. Never again.

I have a ceiling pulley maid over the stairwell. Its brilliant. out the way when I don't need it. lower it down to put clothes on and hoist back up out the way.
No clothes all over the house and stuff dries pretty quick. great for large sheets and towels too

All of these assumptions of a washing line or a stairwell. 😆

People in flats often have zero space. Even for the tumble dryer, its in a bedroom or in the open.

I would pay £6 a load instead of having clothes for five people drying in the bath for days on end. How depressing 😞