The cost of living... what can we do?

It obviously rallied by September.

 

It sure had when I went for the first time in September 1990, was about $1.80 then. If it had been $1.16 me and my mates would never have went.

 

Back on topic, does anyone have one of these "clothes air dryer pod". I seen them yesterday while I was in Lakeland. Some state on the boxes that they cost as little as 6p an hour to run, I assume that was prior to the increase in energy costs, but still could be more cheaper than using a tumble dryer.
With us being on the west coast of Cumbria drying clothes outside in the back end is an issue, rain. So, for us, it would be something worth looking into if they don't consume as much energy.

Dry:Soon Drying Pod Electric Clothes Dryer | Lakeland

 

Further to my mentioning Martin Lewis, I got my weekly email today & found an article that mentions what to do about giving a meter reading before Saturday:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/meter-reading-day---what-you-need-to-know/

 

Today is a sunny day - wonderful news - the dining room end through to the lounge faces SSW so, as the sun is now lower in the sky, sunlight is warming the room up nicely ,
The front door facing a breezy North feels draughty so I 've locked the front door and stood the inner door mat up against it to keep the draught out .

Jenny namaste

 

@Jenny namaste, our balcony has a similar direction,SSW! Like you the sun is low enough in the sky now to enter into our living room again! While this is great, & I love seeing the sun enter the house, we have to have the curtains over the balcony windows closed as my wife has problems with her eyes & the sunlight hurts them. As our kitchen also faces in the same direction & has huge windows whenever she leaves the living room she has to put sunglasses on!

 

I've had a message from British gas saying I have 30 days to send in my Sept 30th meter reading, if not they will estimate it.

The country is in a right old state, and the government are just making matter worse, Truss seems to have gone to ground and Quasimodo appears to be running the show.

 

That type of dryer used a fan to circulate the warm air inside the pod, which explains the power usage. There was some where they were rated at 130w, but they were smaller and no fan, so less clothes and length of time to dry needs to be taken into account.

The best heated clothes airers | Life | Yours

 

From that website..

'Powerful 1300W motor'

So at 34 pence per unit, as per the October price cap, if it runs for an hour it will cost 1.3 times 34 pence = 44.2 pence per hour.

Doesn't sound that cheap to me. I guess the question is how many hours running time does it need to dry a batch of laundry. I bet it's more than one.

I have an outside laundry shelter (I built it myself and I'm proud of it) so it costs us nothing to dry our laundry in any weather. But if I didn't have the space to do that, I'd take what I'd spent on materials for that build and get a good tumble dryer instead.

It depresses me to think that companies are just capitalising on the desperation of people who are already skint, and who don't have the necessary understanding of how to calculate running costs. I can't help but think the marketing strategy is based on the idea that everyone knows tumble dryers are expensive to run so a new revolutionary product that is cheaper and less bulky simply must be cheaper to run.

 

Agree, with 1300w motor the saving does not sound to clever, but its these ones I mean

Dry:Soon Mini Standard 3-Tier Heated Clothes Airer : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

If you scroll to technical specification, they say it is 198w

 

I'm still skeptical.

I read the Q and As. Someone asked how long it takes the clothes to dry. There were a few vague answers like a few hours or overnight.

So it costs 34 times 1.2 pence to dry a batch of laundry. That's about 40 pence. That is a lot cheaper than running a tumble dryer.

I'm always on the lookout for credible alternatives to the norm in my quest to be more eco, but I take a lot of convincing because there have been many fads over the years.