Martin Lewis has shared a cheaper alternative for drying clothes and it costs just 7p an hour. The money-saving expert has shared a hack, which could save households hundreds of pounds, as the cost of living crisis means many are trying to cut back as much as possible.
The tumble dryer is one of the most expensive home appliances to run. According to an analysis by uSwitch, a household that dries two loads of washing a week in an average tumble dryer will run up a £106 a year energy bill, reports The Mirror.
In the most recent episode of The Martin Lewis Podcast, the money expert revealed a clever hack to dry wet clothes for 7p an hour. One of the best parts about the hack is that both central heating or a dryer aren't needed, which is helpful when energy bills are so high.
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Martin has suggested that people should invest in a dehumidifier as the amount of kilowatts per hour it uses is "generally far, far cheaper" than putting the heating on. He went on to explain that so long as you factor in the cost of purchasing one in the first place, having a dehumidifier will guarantee lower electricity bills.
The MoneySavingExpert said: “Many dehumidifiers have different wattages, the one I checked out was 200 watts (w). Once we know it’s 200w and we know a kilowatt (kw) is 1,000w, which is how electricity tends to be priced, we know this is a fifth of a kilowatt.
“And you pay roughly 34p per kw per hour. A fifth is 7p so you’re going to pay roughly 7p per hour to run a dehumidifier at 200w assuming it uses full power the whole time. Which is generally far, far cheaper than putting the heating on.
“If a dehumidifier does work for you it will definitely have lower electricity bills but of course you do have the initial capital outlay of buying a dehumidifier and see how that works for you.”
The financial expert added that the same method can be used for cooking. He advised Brits that they should look into purchasing an air fryer. He said as it may prove cheaper than using an oven or microwave.
Martin said: “The problem with the equation for heating equipment is an oven is going to be about 2,000w. A microwave I believe, from memory… gives you consistent heat whereas an oven is warming up to full temperature and then topping it up so it isn’t running at full power the whole time.
“But if you’re doing a jacket potato for 10 minutes it’s going to be far cheaper than doing a single jacket potato in an oven and keeping it on for an hour and a half.
“However, if you were doing a full roast dinner and you were cooking many of them, that is where it’s probably cheaper than putting five or six jacket potatoes in a microwave because each additional object you put in a microwave, you need to keep it on longer because a microwave just heats the individual object.”
He concluded: “The general equation is: find the wattage of an item, then work out how many kilowatts or what fraction of a kilowatt it’s using, then multiply that by 34p per hour of use.
“If you had a 1,000w microwave and you put it on for 10 minutes, one kilowatt for a sixth of an hour, a sixth of 34p is about 6p, shall we say? So it’s 6p turning the microwave on for that amount of time. So yes it’s a very useful equation.”
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