Advanced options
What The Tumble Dryer Cost Calculator Works Out
- Cost per load: kilowatt-hours per load x the electricity rate (defaults to the current Ofgem price cap unit rate). A conventional condenser dryer draws around 4.5 kWh a load, about GBP 1.20 at current prices; vented dryers about 4 kWh; heat pump dryers around 2 kWh because they recycle their heat. Per use, few appliances touch the tumble dryer.
- Per year: the per-load cost x loads per week x 52. Three condenser loads a week run to about GBP 185 a year; the same routine on a heat pump dryer is about GBP 80.
- Heat pump comparison: what a heat pump dryer would cost on your routine and the annual saving. That GBP 100 a year gap is the whole purchase argument, with gentler low-temperature drying thrown in.
- Your own kWh and months in use (advanced): override the type with a figure from the energy label or a plug-in monitor, and scale the year for households that line dry through the summer.
- Heat pump payback (advanced): the extra purchase price of a heat pump model divided by the annual saving. Heat pump dryers typically cost GBP 150 to GBP 300 more and repay the difference within two to four years for anyone drying regularly.
- Off-peak drying (advanced): the share of loads run overnight on a cheaper rate. Drying consecutive loads also keeps the machine warm, and sensor programmes beat timed ones because they stop at dry rather than at crisp.
- Dehumidifier and airer (advanced): a dehumidifier in a small closed room with an airer is effectively a slow heat pump dryer: 250W for six hours is about 1.5 kWh, roughly heat-pump running costs without the machine. Indoor airers without one are only nearly free, since a load's worth of water vapour has to go somewhere and in a cool house that means condensation and mould.
- Electricity used per year (advanced): annual kilowatt-hours for context against a typical household total. Spinning the wash at 1,400rpm rather than 800 extracts a large share of the water for pennies and cuts drying time proportionally; clean the lint filter every load and rinse the condenser periodically, or airflow and efficiency silently degrade.