Using a clothes dryer three times a week will use about 468 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. It costs an average of $5.53 to run a dryer for a month and $66.41 to run for a year. The best way to save on electricity is to install solar panels. Start comparing your options on the EnergySage Marketplace today.
Electric dryers span a wide range of wattages, from about 2,000 to 6,000 watts. That translates to about 2 to 6 kWh of electricity. Based on the national average rate of 12¢ per kWh, each hour of electric drying will cost somewhere between 24¢ and 72¢, depending on the model.
Dryers are typically somewhere in the range of 2,000 to 6,000 watts. What that means is a dryer uses between 2 and 6 kilowatts an hour.
To calculate the cost of one drying run, you need to multiply 3kWh by the cost per kWh in your state. For example, if we live in California, where 1 kWh costs 19.90¢, one drying run would cost us 60¢, amounting to $124 per year.
Heated airers have cheaper running costs than tumble dryers, plus you'll be drying up to twice as much as a tumble can in one go.
Airers are generally cheaper to buy and run, but take longer, so for large loads, a tumble dryer may work out cheaper.
Which is better: gas or electric dryers? Both have their benefits. Gas dryers generally have lower average operating costs, but can be more expensive initially and require the installation of a gas hookup. Electric dryers are typically cheaper to purchase, but may cost more to operate over time.
Heating and cooling are by far the greatest energy users in the home, making up around 40% of your electric bill. Other big users are washers, dryers, ovens, and stoves. Electronic devices like laptops and TVs are usually pretty cheap to run, but of course, it can all add up.
It is cheaper to do laundry at home versus at a laundromat for a variety of reasons, but to name a few: Because laundromats are a for-profit business, they will charge you a premium for the water and electricity consumed by each load, resulting in a higher cost per load.
The biggest risk of running a dryer when you're not home is the appliance overheating and causing a fire.
Generally, TVs use between 50 to 200 watts (W) of electricity, depending on the model. Most TVs use less than one amp and connect to a 120-volt outlet. Older TVs that use technology such as Plasma and CRT are much less efficient compared to newer LED and LCD TVs.
Whether your dryer is gas or electric, it can take up to 45 minutes for a typical drying cycle. Heavier cycles that include large loads like bedding, can take around three hours to fully dry.
We've already established that overnight is the cheapest time to do your laundry. However, that's not the only factor to consider.
It costs an average of $20 a month or $240 a year to run a refrigerator. A refrigerator's actual energy use is typically much less than the stated wattage because they cycle on and off throughout the day. Generally, you can divide your refrigerator's wattage by 3 to estimate its energy usage.
If you run a 3,000 W clothes dryer once a week, that's 3 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per week, 13 kWh per month, and 156 kWh per year. Running that same dryer three times a week comes to 9 kWh per week, 39 kWh per month, and 468 kWh per year.
Your washing machine and its co-conspirators, the dryer and the dishwasher, drive up your energy bill with one key thing: heat. All these machines use heat, and they use a lot of it.
By overloading the washer, your clothing will not come out as clean. Overloading limits the movement of the clothes, and movement is what “shakes” the dirt and grime from clothing. In addition, an overloaded wash won't disperse the detergent properly.
Unplugging appliances has the potential to save you money on expenses, and this practice can also increase the life of your belongings. The more items you have plugged in around the house, the more susceptible your devices are to damage through an unexpected power surge.
A lot can happen between now and then. Note, however, that Los Angeles recently voted a gas appliance ban for new construction, requiring electric stoves, water heaters, furnaces, and clothes dryers. Similarly, San Francisco regulators approved a ban on new home furnaces and water heaters that rely on gas fuel.
If their dryer uses an average of 3,000 watts per hour, and each load takes a maximum of one hour to dry, they'll use 6 kWh a day. A couple doing 2 loads each will double that, using 12 kWh over 4 hours. A family of 4 may double that again, using 24 kWh over 8 hours.