Washing clothes on a lower temperature can save money (picture: Getty Images)

With energy prices skyrocketing and winter fast creeping upon us, Britons are doing everything they can to cut costs.

Making small changes to the way you wash your clothes can have a real impact on monthly bills.

But what are the most effective ways of saving money on laundry?

Here is our handy list of tips.

Air dry clothes

Tumble dryers use the most energy out of all standard household energy appliances (picture: Getty)

Tumble dryers use the most energy out of all standard household energy appliances, therefore, it is better to dry clothes on a drying rack where possible.

Buying a dehumidifier (which are a lot cheaper to run than tumble dryers) can help to massively speed up the process of air drying as the appliance sucks the moisture off the clothes.

If the heating is on you can also pop your clothes on the radiator to speed up the drying process, and drying your clothes outside on days where the weather isn’t too grim is the most cost-effective means of drying laundry and gives your clothes that fresh line dried smell.

Wash clothes at 20 or 30 degrees

Research conducted by Which? found that switching from 40°C to 30°C saved 38% energy, and going down to 20°C saved 62%.

On average, it costs about £77 a year to run four washing a week.

Switching from 30°C would slash this by £29 and switching 20°C would save £48.

And lowering the temperature of your wash won’t affect its cleaning quality – unless laundry is heavily soiled it should still do a good job.

Do one big wash instead of small daily washes

Making sure the washing machine is full will help to reduce costs (picture: Getty)

Your washing machine will use about the same amount of energy no matter the size of the load, so its better to do one big wash than lots of smaller ones.

However, an overfilled machine can stop clothes from washing properly.

A good way to check that you haven’t put too many clothes in the washing machine is to make sure you can still touch the top of the basin.

Wash clothes later at night

It is cheaper to wash clothes late at night (picture: Getty)

Energy can be cheaper to use at different times of the day as, depending on your tariff, increased demand can cause a surge in costs.

The most expensive time of day to wash your clothes in between 4pm and 7pm, so try and avoid doing laundry during this period.

Late at night, between 10pm and 5pm, is the cheapest time to use energy, and therefore a perfect time to put on a load of washing.

However, make sure to follow fire safety guidance and never put a wash in before heading to bed.

Purchase some dryer balls

Dryer balls help clothes to dry faster (Picture: Getty)

Dryer balls made from wool or rubber help to separate clothes and increase their exposure to airflow during a cycle.

This can reduce drying time and the length your dryer needs to run for, saving you energy.

Dryer balls made from wool can even soak up the moisture in your washing machine and save further drying time.

You can purchase a pack of two from Amazon for £3.80.

MORE : How much does it cost to run a tumble dryer?

MORE : How much does it cost to do the laundry?

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Here are some handy tips for saving money when doing the laundry.