This has disastrous consequences for businesses and the economy. It is the number one biggest problem facing the UK economy after the huge government debt and crippling taxes... although there are a number of other problems I could mention.
A shift to EVs and heat pumps and possibly datacentres should increase demand and lower unit prices. Even more so to the degree that those can respond to price signals and shift demand away from peaks.
Peaks are expensive for the same reason, you need to build capacity that is rarely used and so can't spread the cost.
Separately, smart charging or water heating can use the cheapest available generation from renewables as they vary with time.
On the other hand, this generates a "doom loop" for methane gas as it also has network costs. Ensuring entire areas shift to electric heating at the same time helps with this e.g. banning new build areas from connecting to gas networks.
We do have electric tumble dryers, condenser dryers, washer dryers.
(Indeed, the progressive switch to condensers may be part of power consumption dropping.)
AFAIK The UK's climate is about equivalent to New York State.
If you have a family of four, the clothes dryer is an ENORMOUS time-saver. I'll never voluntarily live in an apartment that doesn't have one. No way I'm sacrificing my quality of life.
What it does save is space that you need to hang clothes.
During winter I also like that it provides some moisture so the air won't get too dry.
edit: so basically we only use our dryer if there's a ton of laundry to hang, plus sometimes for towels or bed sheets/blankets.
> I don't really mind hanging clothes, it doesn't take that long.
I mean sure, but i still would rather not do it. I could wash my dishes by hand too, its not reallly that big of a deal, but i dont because we have technology. We have solutions to all these things, and your politicians have somehow convinced you that its fine that you cant use them. Bizzaro.
The tumble dryer I had in the US could do a full load dry in about 25-30 mins. Maybe it was significantly more wasteful in terms of energy.
I do think maybe the worst heat pump driers are worse than the worst condensers and vented dryers. General rule seems to be, Miele best (but you'll pay for it), Bosch/Siemens/Neff are good (these are all the same company, and nothing much to do with the Siemens that makes turbines and medical equipment these days), Zanussi/Electrolux/AEG (same company) and LG and Samsung are fine, Hotpoint/Whirlpool/Indesit (also all the same company; appliance companies love doing this) are bloody awful.
That's exactly why we convert things to money - so we don't use arbitrary measurements. An energy use is not "wasteful", it can only be expensive. Which is worth or not, depending on particular conditions.
The weather in the UK can be very humid, and if you don't have much of a garden, it can be impossible to dry your clothes at times. We've had times where our living room was full of clothes for more than a few days, and it wouldn't matter because it wouldn't really dry anyway.
So we've invested in dehumidifiers and a dryer, and it made our life a lot more comfortable.