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What is the cheapest way to wash clothes when the cost of living is only ever going in one direction?
When it was just me and my wife, we would get away with doing a weekend wash, with the introduction of two children that has changed and we now have our washing machine on quite regularly, even more, when the children are not well.
Like most people, we are always trying to find ways to save money on those things that we use regularly and washing our clothes is certainly one of them.
We try and watch our energy consumption and keep an eye on our in-home display (IHD) which we got when we had smart meters installed, but some things are just inevitable and there is no amount of looking at our IHD that is going to allow us to decrease the amount that we are paying when doing the laundry.
But, washing shouldn’t be your only consideration when doing your washing.
What is the cheapest way to wash clothes?
The most obvious way to wash your clothes cheaply is to wash your clothes at the lowest temperature possible whilst still getting your clothes clean.
This is widely accepted as 30 degrees, this temperature shouldn’t be seen as the default for every wash though as it’s recommended that you wash bedding and towels at 60 degrees to kill bacteria and destroy viruses.
How much does washing your clothes cost?
There’s no one size fits all in determining how much it will cost you to run your washing machine as there are several things that will affect this.
- The energy efficiency rating of your washing machine
- The temperature you wash your clothes on
Wash load capacity of 7-9kg, based on an eco wash of between 40 degrees and 60 degrees.
Energy rating A – 0.494 kWh per cycle
Energy rating B – 0.545 kWh per cycle
Energy rating C – 0,623 kWh per cycle
Energy rating D – 0.760 kWh per cycle
Energy rating E – 0.82 kWh per cycle
Energy rating F – 0.93 kWh per cycle
What is the best time to wash your clothes?
If you are on your energy supplier’s standard tariff, it isn’t going to matter what time you do your washing as they will generally charge you the same either way.
The only people that do benefit from using their washing machine off-peak are those that are on economy 7 or 10 tariffs
Will a quick wash help save money?
While a quick wash will save you some money, it is not a good idea to use it regularly.
Quick washes use a lower temperature to wash your clothes, which can result in a washing machine that doesn’t smell too fresh due to a build-up of mould and bacteria, not only this if your clothing is heavily soiled then it’s likely that a quick wash isn’t going to clean your it satisfactorily and you’ll probably end up having to wash it again at a suitable temperature.
Will a cold water wash save me any money?
The Energy Saving Trust state that a 30-degree wash saves around 40% on your energy used each year.
As a rule of thumb, lightly soiled clothes should be washed at 30 degrees and heavily soiled clothes washed at 40 degrees.
Most washing detergents have been made with cold water washes in mind, so there shouldn’t be any loss in the quality of your wash at colder temperatures.
What about drying your clothes?
Washing your clothes is only one element and you will, of course, need to try them.
Unfortunately, the British weather will mean that we can’t always get the washing on the line to let them air and if you do, you sometimes feel that you’re playing catch and mouse with mother nature, staring out of the window to see if that big cloud will pass or is it going to be torrential rain.
Some will resort to putting those items in the tumble dryer, others will use a standard airer and others will use have their own methods of getting their washing dry without minimum interruption.
How much does it tumble dryer cost to run?
We have a condenser dryer in our house and it feels sometimes that it is never off. It’s B rated and has a 7kg load capacity.
It uses 3.4kWh of energy per cycle, so as you can see that’s 4 times more than the worst energy rated washing machine, so using a dryer adds a great deal of expense to your everyday washing.
After looking at more modern condenser dryers, they average 3kWh on a partial load, so while our dryer is old there doesn’t appear to have been much progress in the development of dryers to make them cheaper to run.
Is there anything you can buy to make drying clothes cheaper?
Dryer balls
The idea behind dryer balls is that you put them in with your drying and they separate the load allowing for better head flow between your clothes and therefore a faster drying time, this reduction in drying time is between 20-40% as claimed by some manufacturers.
Eco-friendly dryer balls are made of wool, but you can also buy plastic and rubber balls.
How long do dryer balls last?
This is dependent on the material, you decide to buy, but manufacturers of wool dryer balls say that they will last about 1000 loads or 2 – 5 years, though it does depend on how you use them.
How much do wool dryer balls cost?
You can pick them up for as little as £8 for a pack of 6 X-Large balls, but they can go as high as £20 for novelty balls.
Heated clothes airer
As the name suggests, these are just like the standard airers, with the only difference being you plug them in.
They aren’t cheap, but you can pick one up for as little as £40 and can go up to the price of a small tumble dryer, over £200.
A good airer will have several drying time settings and could hold anything up to 15kg of washing.
Depending on the tariff that you were on with your electricity supplier, some manufacturers claim that they could cost you as little as 6p per hour to run.
Dryer pods
Dryer pods work a little differently from heated clothes airers in that they circulate hot air about the pod drying clothes that have been hung on hangers.
Well known brands such as Lakeland and JML have their own branded pods with the Lakeland version holding 12 items on hangers and the JML version holding 18 items.
Again, compared to a modern tumble dryer they are cheap to run, costing around 15p per hour to run, depending on your tariff.
Final thought
Washing at a colder temperature, at around 30 degrees and even 20 degrees, over the year is going to be the cheapest way to wash your clothes
Quick washes are another great way of saving money when washing so long as they aren’t done regularly.
Washing your clothes is only part of the story though as drying your clothes could cost more than the wash themselves due to dryers generally using more energy.
Do you have any ingenious ways of saving money on your washing? Or do you feel that it is one of those things that you can save very little on?
Let me know in the comments.
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