Martin Lewis has suggested a cheaper alternative for drying clothes - and it costs just 7p an hour.
The money-saving expert has shared a nifty hack, which could save households hundreds of pounds, as the cost of living crisis means many are struggling to make ends meet.
It is common knowledge that the tumble dryer is one of the most expensive home appliances to run.
According to 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.
In his latest episode of The Martin Lewis Podcast, the popular TV expert has revealed an ingenious approach to drying wet clothes for just 7p an an hour.
And the best part about this hack is that Brits will not need to switch the central heating on or run a dryer - a very welcome tip when energy bills are so high.
Martin has suggested that Brits should invest in a dehumidifier as the amount of kilowatt's per hour it uses is "generally far, far cheaper" than putting the heating on.
He explained that so long as you factor in the cost of purchasing one int he first place, having a dehumidifier will guarantee families lower electricity bills.
The MoneySavingExpert founder explained on his show: “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 guru explained that the same method can be used for cooking, advising Brits that they should look into purchasing an air fryer as it may prove cheaper than using an oven or microwave.
Martin said: “The problem with the equation for heating equipments 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.”
