How much electricity does a dryer use?
A standard vented electric dryer is certified at **608 kWh a year** — about **$112** at the US average tariff. That makes it the most expensive appliance on this site to run. But this is the one figure here that needs a warning before you use it, and the warning is in the next section rather than at the bottom of the page.
Work it out with your own tariff
Your rate, cents per kWh
There is no hours setting here, unlike the other device pages. This appliance is not certified in watts at all — only as a yearly total, and that total already includes a defined pattern of use. Multiplying it by hours of your own would count the usage twice.
| Period | Cost | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| A year | $316 | 608 kWh — the measured figure |
| A month | $26 | a twelfth of the year |
| A day | $0.87 | a 365th of the year |
608 kWh × 52¢ = $316 a year. That averages 69 W drawn continuously.
608 kWh a year covers standard vented electric dryers, 343 certified models. Read the caveat: the middle half of them report 607 to 608, because that is the certification threshold rather than a spread of measurements. Gas dryers are excluded — their published figure combines gas and electricity and is not comparable. Watts are not published for this appliance at all. Rate defaults to 18.44¢ (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2026-05) — a national average, which is wrong for you specifically, so put your own in above.
608 is a threshold, not a measurement
Of 343 certified standard vented electric dryers, the middle half report between 607 and 608 kWh. That is not a tight distribution of measurements. It is the effect of a certification ceiling: models are designed to come in just under it, and almost every one reports the same number.
So the honest reading of 608 kWh is "what a certified vented dryer is permitted to use", not "what dryers use". A model that was never submitted for certification can sit well above it, and nothing in this dataset tells you how far.
This matters more here than on the other pages, because elsewhere the certified spread is real. On the refrigerator page the middle half runs 360 to 469 kWh — that is a genuine range of measured models. Here it is 607 to 608.
Heat pump dryers are the exception, and the difference is real
| Type | Middle half | Median | Models |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard vented, electric | 607-608 kWh | 608 kWh | 343 |
| Ventless heat pump, electric | 257-531 kWh | 435 kWh | 50 |
| Compact ventless, 240 V | 229-317 kWh | 317 kWh | 57 |
| Compact ventless, 120 V | 133 kWh | 133 kWh | 9 |
The heat pump median is 28 per cent below the vented figure, and — unlike the vented group — its range is a real spread rather than a line at the threshold. At the US average tariff the difference between 608 and 435 kWh is about $32 a year.
They also take longer per cycle, which is the trade-off nobody mentions alongside the saving.
Gas dryers are not on this page, deliberately
Certified gas dryers publish a figure of about 687 kWh a year — higher than the electric one. A gas dryer does not use more electricity than an electric dryer; it uses far less. The published figure combines gas and electricity into one energy-equivalent number, so it cannot be compared with the electric figures above and cannot be multiplied by an electricity tariff.
Quoting it as electricity would overstate a gas dryer's running cost several times over. Until there is a gas price on this site to go with it, the honest thing is to leave it out.
What one load costs
A per-cycle figure is the annual total divided by the number of cycles a year, and the certified data does not state how many cycles its test assumes. So here is the arithmetic at several frequencies rather than one number resting on a hidden assumption:
| How often you run it | Cycles a year | Energy per load | Cost per load |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three times a week | 156 | 3.90 kWh | 71.9¢ |
| Four times a week | 208 | 2.92 kWh | 53.9¢ |
| Five times a week | 260 | 2.34 kWh | 43.1¢ |
| Daily | 365 | 1.67 kWh | 30.7¢ |
At 18.44¢ per kWh. The certified test cycle takes a median of 68 minutes.
Read this table for what it is: because the annual total is fixed by the certification, running the dryer more often makes each load look cheaper. That is an artefact of the division, not a saving. It is also why a single per-load figure quoted without its cycle count should be treated with suspicion.
Why there is no wattage here
The query "how many watts does a dryer use" asks for a figure that is not published for this appliance. A dryer's heating element draws thousands of watts while it is on, cycling with the thermostat, and the motor draws a fraction of that continuously — there is no single number that describes the machine.
A wattage cannot be recovered from the annual figure either. Divide 608 kWh by the cycle counts above and the implied average power during a cycle ranges from about 1,470 to 3,440 watts depending only on how many cycles you assume. Any page that gives you one wattage has picked an assumption and not told you.
What it costs you specifically
Set your own tariff below.
What this does not account for
The headline figure is a certification threshold. This is the most important caveat on the page and it is in the body text as well, because using 608 kWh as a measurement of dryers in general would be wrong. It describes what certified vented models are permitted.
Gas dryers are excluded. Their published figure combines fuels and cannot be multiplied by an electricity tariff.
The number of cycles is an assumption, always. The annual figure contains one that the data does not state; the per-load table above makes several explicit instead of hiding one.
Certified dryers are a biased sample. Certification is voluntary and efficient models earn it. An older dryer, particularly a vented one with a failing moisture sensor that over-dries every load, uses considerably more.
Vent condition changes real consumption and is not in any test. A blocked or long vent run makes every cycle longer, and cycle length is where the energy goes. This is the cheapest thing on this page to fix.
Sources
- 01ENERGY STAR certified residential clothes dryers — estimated annual energy useU.S. Environmental Protection Agency ·
- 02Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.3 — average price of electricity to ultimate customersU.S. Energy Information Administration ·
How these figures are produced: see our methodology.
Figures are calculated from published wattages and a published tariff, both dated above. They are good for comparing devices, not for predicting your bill: your rate, settings and usage all differ.