It’s one of those household chores that becomes more difficult in winter when the rain is pouring and it’s freezing cold.
Drying clothes indoors then becomes a battle: do you open the windows to stop mould, and let all your heat out? Do you keep windows closed but worry about condensation damage? Do you use an extremely expensive tumble dryer or crank the heating?
Money expert Martin Lewis has opened up about the issue, urging households to use cheaper methods to dry their clothes inside in the winter, rather than relying on expensive appliances like tumble dryers.
Martin says that dehumidifiers are the perfect compromise, being cheap to run and avoiding mould or mildew buildup without having to open your windows and let all your heat escape.
They can cost as little as 5p an hour to run based on current energy prices, which is a far cry from the 50p to £1 for a typical tumble dryer.
Speaking on an episode of The Martin Lewis Podcast on BBC Sounds, Spotify and Apple Music, Martin said: “Many dehumidifiers have different wattages – the one I checked out was 200W.
“Once we know it’s 200W and we know a kilowatt 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 kilowatt 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.”
Energy costs are slightly lower since those calculations, meaning it will only cost about 5.5p an hour now based on 26p unit prices this winter.
It also means that you don’t have to crank your heating or use your radiators to dry the clothes, although not using any heating at all could make it take longer to dry.
By contrast, energy supplier Utilita reckons that a tumble dryer costs as much as 53p to £1 an hour to run, which is ten to 20 times the amount. Demon appliance indeed.
The best value dehumidifiers you can buy right now
The Pro Breeze 12L dehumidifier has laundry drying settings built in and a 12 litre tank, meaning you can run it lots of times before you have to empty the tray. It’s available at Amazon for just £134.99, which may sound like a lot up front but it’s much cheaper than running a tumble dryer and cheaper than fixing mould, so it will be worth it in the long run.
Devola has a larger 20L model which also has an air purifier built in, so you can improve the air quality in your house while also stripping out moisture and drying your clothes. That’s £179.99 for the larger 20L model or just £119.06 for the smaller 12L size, and also has a quiet run mode at just 38db, quieter than a fridge.
Finally, the EcoAir DD1 7L is a bit smaller, but its slimmer profile will fit into a living room more easily. It has a laundry setting and a quiet running level at just 34db, the quietest model here.
It’s slightly pricier at £229 but is the most sophisticated model here with lots of settings, an app to connect to and glowing reviews.
There are some cheaper portable options but these don’t have laundry settings and aren’t recommended for drying clothes as they won’t be powerful enough or have enough water storage
