Martin Lewis explains the cheapest way to dry clothes

Martin Lewis, TV’s popular money-saving expert, has outdone himself in 2022, helping millions of Britons weather a desperately bleak cost of living crisis by giving vital advice on finances personal at a time when many need all the practical help. they can get.

Bringing compassion and expertise to his appearances on his ITV program The Martin Lewis Money Show LiveThrough his BBC podcast, website and newsletter and through his regular media interviews, Lewis provides a welcome public service to those struggling to make ends meet.

No concern is too small to warrant its attention and, in the latest episode of The Martin Lewis Podcastthe finance guru has revealed an ingenious approach to drying wet clothes for just 7p an hour without turning on the central heating or running a clothes dryer, a very welcome trick when energy bills are so high.

He suggested using a dehumidifier for work instead, which promises big savings this Christmas – as long as you consider the cost of purchase in the first place, as Lewis himself acknowledged.

“Many dehumidifiers have different wattages, the one I checked was 200 watts (w),” he explained on the show.

“Once we know it’s 200w and we know that a kilowatt (kw) is 1000w, which is the price of electricity, we know it’s one-fifth of a kilowatt.

“And you’re paying around 34p per kw per hour. A fifth is 7p, so you’re going to pay around 7p per hour to run a dehumidifier at 200w assuming it’s using full power all the time. Which is usually a lot, much cheaper than turning on the heating.

“If a dehumidifier works for you, it will definitely have lower electric bills, but of course you have the initial capital outlay to buy a dehumidifier and see how it works for you.”

Along the same lines, he encouraged listeners to consider whether getting an air fryer might also turn out to be cheaper than baking or microwaving on the same basis.

“The problem with the equation for heating equipment is that an oven is going to be around 2,000w,” he said.

“A microwave, I believe, from memory…gives you consistent heat whereas an oven heats up to full heat and then fills it up so it’s not running at full power all the time.”

“But if you make a coated potato for 10 minutes, it will be much cheaper than making a single coated potato in an oven and keeping it for an hour and a half.

“However, if you were doing a full roast and cooking a lot of it, it’s probably cheaper than putting five or six coated potatoes in a microwave, because every extra item you put in a microwave , you have to keep it longer because a microwave only 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 uses, then multiply that by 34 pence per hour of use.

“If you had a 1000W microwave and you turn it on for 10 minutes, one kilowatt for one-sixth of an hour, one-sixth of 34p is about 6p, shall we say? It is therefore 6p to turn on the microwave during this time. So yes, it is a very useful equation.