THERE’S an underused setting on the tumble dryer that could actually save you money on your bill every year.
And with the cost of living continuing on the rise, there’s never a bad time to learn some money-saving tricks.
1
Energy bills are on the verge of rising to £3,000 next month, and you don’t want to be spending more than you have to.
Perhaps it’s time to focus on vampire appliances around the home which could be sucking up much more cash than you realise.
The tumble dryer is an example – it actually costs families an average £104.52 a year tumble drying if they do three loads every week.
On average, Uswitch estimates a tumble dryer uses roughly 4.5 kWh of energy per cycle.
Each kWh of energy you use costs 14.37p – which means that you’ll be coughing up roughly 67p per cycle.
But don’t get too stressed – there’s a way you can shave £53 off that yearly total with one simple trick.
Of course, how much you save will depend on the model of tumble dryer you have, how often you normally use it and who your energy provider is.
But Ben Gallizzi, energy expert at Uswitch, says you should switch to the spin cycle setting if you want to save even a little bit.
Most read in Money
He explained: “If your clothes are still very wet when you take them out of the washing machine, you could make use of the spin cycle setting.
“Using the spin cycle will remove excess water, meaning your clothes will dry faster in the tumble dryer or on an airer.”
How else can I save using my tumble dryer?
First of all, it’s definitely worth researching which model you’re going to buy before splashing the cash.
There are three main types of tumble dryer you can buy – heat-pump dryers, condenser dryers and vented dryers.
But research from Which? suggests a heat-pump dryer might be the best way to go – these cost up to £51 less each year to run compared to some other models.
That’s because they recycle hot air when drying your clothes, so they don’t need to work as hard.
It’s always an idea to keep the temperature as low as possible when using the dryer as well.
If you reduced the temperature to 30°C then it would only cost as little as £25 a year depending on how often you put a load on.
Lowering it to 20°C will make it roughly £14 a year to run, again if it’s only you and you preferably have a heat-pump model.
Other ways to save on bills
Try not to overfill the kettle, for instance, because it could add a whopping £87 to your yearly bill if you do.
If you have a 3kwh kettle, than it takes 1p to boil one cup of tea of coffee in one minute.
But if you fill up your kettle five times more than that, it would take five minutes to boil and cost 7p.
That means you could be wasting 24p a day if you boiled the kettle four times a day and overfilled it.
Over a year, that takes your total to a massive £87.60.
Also, make sure your home is insulated – it could save even more cash.
You can calculate all the waste energy lost room by room in your house, and you might be able to switch something off or plug a draughty gap.
Energy saving devices could help lower your bill too, like smart lightbulbs or an airfryer.
Shoppers spotted this Costco air fryer recently that’s selling for £20 less than its usual price.
A 1,000W air fryer costs just 17p to run for 30 minutes and 34p to run for an hour.
