I stopped using my tumble dryer for a month

As someone who writes about all aspects of home energy for a living, I do try to practice what I preach.

This is especially true when it comes to saving energy at home. But one place I struggle with this is not using my tumble dryer. While I do embrace methods to use my tumble dryer in the most cost-efficient way, I’ve always struggled to go without it during the winter.

So I set myself a challenge of going without using the tumble dryer for the whole of February to both see how I got on with other (less-expensive) clothes drying methods, and to see how much money I was potentially wasting by forgoing those other methods in favour of my tumble dryer. But while I managed to save a bit of money, I did have to sacrifice how my house looked.

How much money did I save by not using my tumble dryer?

I have an energy efficient A++ 7kg Beko tumble dryer, which I tend to use on average three times a week in winter, for bed linen, towels and thicker items of clothing, like jumpers, sweatshirts and jeans.

I’d say it’s a pretty safe assumption that I would have used it 12-14 times in February if I factor in washing my dog’s blankets too.

For a full-load on the standard setting, which lasts 174 minutes, my tumble dryer uses around 1.68kWh of electricity. But as I sometimes use a non-standard and more energy intensive setting, or find myself putting it on the standard setting for an extra 30 minutes to get the result I want, I’d say it’s probably closer to 2kWh each time I use it. (As the actual wattage can depend on the load, moisture and ambient temperature, this is the closest I can get to accurate).

That means that each time I use it, my tumble dryer’s running costs are just under 56p based on the January 2026 energy price cap. If I’d used it 14 times in February, it would have cost me £7.75. Not quite the mammoth saving I was expecting.

But this is where the efficiency of your tumble dryer matters. Had I got a similar 7kg Beko tumble dryer that was C-rated (so less energy efficient) rather than A++ rated, the standard cycle would use 4.2kWh, which would cost just over £1.16 each time I used it, and £16.28 over the course of 14 February loads.

Was the saving worth it?

While the idea of avoiding both energy and money waste is always appealing, in this case, there’s one main reason the £7.75 saving isn’t really worth it. And that reason is finding somewhere else to effectively dry these bulky and or large items.

I use a bog-standard airer to dry lighter items like underwear, socks and t-shirts, which dry quite quickly, especially when the central heating comes on, so I don’t feel like they are too much of a hassle to dry.

But I have a king size bed, so the bed linen is sizable, and towels seem to take ages to dry, so it feels like there is constantly laundry on display wherever I look around my home, which I hate. I actually found myself feeling a bit stressed about it, which is definitely not the vibe I want from my home.

There’s also something about the softness of towels out of the tumble dryer that I’m not sure I’m prepared to give up in winter.

However, I realise that I feel that way because of the relatively low running costs of my tumble dryer. If I had a lower energy-rated tumble dryer and was doing more laundry loads each week, I’d definitely be more likely to try alternative ways to dry things like bedding indoors in winter.

Fortunately, we’re creeping ever closer to spring and summer, which means I’ll definitely be giving my tumble dryer a break and drying my laundry outside. Bring on the days when it dries in about 45 minutes!