How much does it cost to run a tumble dryer per hour in the UK?

Laundry By Ellen HartwellPublished 27 September 2026

What a tumble dryer actually draws

A vented or condenser dryer is mostly a big heating element with a drum in front of it. UK machines sit between 2,000 and 3,000 watts, with 2,500 watts as the everyday figure, and that is the draw while the element is on rather than an average across the cycle.

The element does not run continuously. Once the drum is warm the machine cycles it, and a sensor dryer cuts it early when the clothes reach the target dryness. That is why a machine with a 2,500 watt plate does not use 2.5 kilowatt hours for every hour it runs. Across a full ninety minute cotton load the total lands around 2.5 kilowatt hours, which is why the per hour and per load figures come out so close together on this appliance.

The load itself moves the number more than the machine does. A wash that came out of a 1,400 spin holds much less water than one from a 1,000 spin, and the range across real loads runs from 1.8 kilowatt hours for a light spun load up to 3.5 for a drum of wet towels.

The cost per hour, per load and per year

At 2,500 watts an hour of element time is 2.5 kilowatt hours, which is 65.3p at the Ofgem cap rate of 26.11p per kilowatt hour. A 2,000 watt machine costs 52.2p an hour and a 3,000 watt one costs 78.3p.

Per load the honest range is 47p at 1.8 kilowatt hours up to 91p at 3.5, with 65p as the middle. Three loads a week works out at 32.5 kilowatt hours a month and £8.49, or £101.88 across a year. That single appliance is the reason most laundry cost questions get asked at all.

Readers in the United States can take the same 2.5 kilowatt hours against the EIA residential average of 18.34 cents per kilowatt hour, which is about 46 cents a load and $5.96 a month at three loads a week. In California, at 34.74 cents, the same month reaches $11.29.

Rates: Ofgem cap 1 July to 30 September 2026 at 26.11p per kWh (source), EIA residential average June 2026 at 18.34 cents per kWh (source). Checked 2026-09-22.

The saving that happens before the dryer

The cheapest kilowatt hour in the laundry room is the one the washing machine takes out mechanically.

A spin cycle removes water with a motor rather than with heat, and it does it for a fraction of the energy. A washing machine uses about 0.68 kilowatt hours for a whole 40 degree cotton wash, which is 17.8p including the heating of the water, and a longer faster final spin adds very little to that. Every litre that leaves in the spin is a litre the dryer element does not have to boil off.

Moving a load from a 1,000 spin to a 1,400 spin typically shifts it from the top of the dryer range towards the bottom, which is the difference between 91p and 47p on the same clothes. Nothing else you can do to a tumble dryer comes close to that, and it costs nothing at all.

Against a heat pump, an airer and a dehumidifier

A heat pump dryer recovers the heat from the damp air instead of throwing it out, and uses about 1.5 kilowatt hours a load, or 39.2p. That is 26p a load cheaper, £40.72 a year at three loads a week, against a purchase price a couple of hundred pounds higher and a cycle roughly twice as long.

A 300 watt heated airer running four hours uses 1.2 kilowatt hours and costs 31.3p, less than half the dryer. In a cold room it often needs six or eight hours, which takes it to 47p or 63p and puts it level with the dryer while still taking all night.

A dehumidifier in a closed room with an airer is the cheapest of all at around 20p for five hours, and the slowest. All three indoor options share the same hidden cost, which is that two litres of water per load ends up in the air of your house and then on the coldest wall in it.

Six ways to cut what the dryer costs

• Spin at the highest speed the fabric allows before the load goes anywhere near the dryer.
• Clean the lint filter every load and the condenser filter monthly, because restricted airflow makes the machine run longer for the same result.
• Dry full loads rather than half ones. Heating a drum is a fixed cost and a half empty drum spreads it over fewer clothes.
• Use the sensor programme instead of a timed one, so the machine stops when the clothes are dry rather than when the dial runs out.
• Sort by fabric weight, since one pair of jeans in with the shirts keeps the whole cycle running for the sake of one item.
• Take the shirts out damp and hang them. They finish on the hanger for nothing and they need less ironing, which is an iron you never have to switch on.

Is the dryer worth keeping

For a family of four in a British winter, almost certainly. £102 a year buys dry school uniform on a Tuesday night and a house that is not draped in washing, and the alternatives all take a full day and put the moisture into your walls.

For a household of one or two with a spare room and a dehumidifier, the dryer is a large appliance earning very little. Run the numbers on your own laundry rather than ours, because three loads a week and one load a fortnight are completely different arguments.