UK households are being warned to stop washing their clothes at night – because it almost certainly won’t actually be cheaper but it could expose your home to serious fire risks.
Many headlines are published every month with advice like ‘Households told cheapest time of day to wash clothes’ or ‘People urged to do laundry between 4pm and 9pm’, but in reality, the vast majority of British households are not on time-sensitive tariffs, such as Economy 7, and won’t save a penny by washing their clothes at a certain time.
What’s more, according to fire chiefs, setting off your clothes at night ‘when the rates are cheaper’ is actually a fire risk too.
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service addressed what it says is a ‘misconception’ that it’s cheaper to run electric appliances at night and that households are exposing themselves to higher fire risks for, in most cases, no savings at all.
They said: “There is often a misconception, which has recently been exacerbated by social media, that it is cheaper to use electricity during off peak night-time hours.
“For most households this is simply not the case, unless like the minority of homes you are on an off-peak or time-of-use tariff.
“If a fire breaks out during the night, the risk to life is always greater as it’s very likely people will be asleep and have less time to react and escape the property.”
This is backed up by West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service which warns: “Nearly 6,000 accidental fires in the home, where people have been injured, are caused by household appliances other than cooking appliances.
“Avoid using your dishwasher or washing machine at night when you are asleep or when you are not at home.”
There are some energy tariffs which offer lower prices at night. Economy 7 tariffs are those which give customers off-peak prices, usually between midnight and 7am, while other ‘time of use’ tariffs such as those from Octopus Energy will also cut your price depending on the time of day, using a smart meter.
But the vast majority of British homes are not on time-of-use or Economy 7 tariffs, and if you aren’t, you won’t save anything by running appliances at night
Martin Lewis, replying to a question on Twitter, previously outlined way back in a post on October 6, 2022, during the peak of the energy price crisis how the time of day makes no difference to most people’s bills.
He said: “Most don’t have time-of-use tariffs so there’s no price difference.
“If you do, night’s cheaper. Yet peak use is 4pm to 9pm so for UK’s energy security, not then is better.”
