If you install a clothes pulley, you’d render the tumble dryer pretty much useless.

Before you fit the clothes pulley, it’s best to upgrade some of the hardware first.
The stock pulleys and hooks can fail after a couple of years.

I’d have a look around your marine supply shops for better hardware.

I calculated some of the return periods when I renovated, electricity was cheap then and was what I based it on. Everything was DIYed so no labour costs.

Roof, floor and wall insulation – between 2 and ten years assuming most heat was being lost through the roof before insulating. In terms of comfort it was doing the floor that was most noticeable, being able to walk around barefoot in Winter.

Replacing everything halogen with LED strips. The kitchen is better lit with one well-placed 18W LED than with 500W of spot lights. As the room used most the return was pretty much immediate.

PV under seven years

Oven 10 years IIRC 2KW rather tha 3.5kW

Solar thermal 11 years, in fact it was quicker because it was more efficient than expected.

Triple glazing instead of double, probably not in my lifetime at the time – now it would be worth it. I did it anyhow for the comfort.

If you DIY all of the above except triple glazing would pay back in well under 10 years at 50p/kWh.

Is there a reliable objective professional who I could pay to assess my house and suggest most effective/best value improvements? Don’t want an EPC or a builder who has a vested interest in the work.

We had a recent EPC for a house sale. The guy was very good at explaining stuff to us, what was cost effective, what wasn’t etc. He wasn’t aligned to any window firm, boiler co etc. Just impartial chatter. There’s a cost obviously (£75 for ours) but I’d be wary of anyone coming to do a ‘free survey’, they’ve got to get their money somehow, their own product or companies they ‘represent’