The National Resources Defense Council concludes that Americans spend $9 billion a year on the electricity used to dry their clothes. While the industry has come a long way in recent years to increase energy efficiency, electric clothes dryers are notorious energy hogs. In most homes, the average electricity consumption of a clothes dryer is equal to that of a fridge, dishwasher and washing machine combined.
Virtually all residential electric dryers operate on a 240-volt circuit which is twice the conventional voltage of other electrical devices such as lights, televisions and computers. The motor that rotates the dryer drum, the blower fan and the electrical coils that generate heat are the principal electrical components that drive energy use in a dryer.
According to researchgate.net, the average family of 4 does approximately 5 loads of laundry per week. A conventional front-loading dryer runs on roughly 5600 watts with the average drying time of 45 minutes. A few quick calculations based on local rates of approximately $0.12 per kilowatt hour and we learn that it costs roughly $0.50 to dry each load of laundry in an efficiently-running dryer. That equates to $130 per year on electricity to dry clothes. You can easily check your own estimated appliance energy costs with the handy calculator at energy.gov.
But what if it takes your dryer longer than 45 minutes to dry that load of laundry? Many of our clients call because they are tired of their dryer taking 2 or 3+ cycles to get their laundry dry. If a dryer is not running efficiently and it’s taking two or three times longer to dry, that can cause you to spend $260-400+ more a year than you should.
But utility bills aren’t the only cost of an inefficient dryer system. If it’s taking twice as long to dry, your dryer’s life is essentially cut in half. And with modern dryers costing anywhere from $800 to $1,500, you want to preserve your appliance for as long as possible.
Proper ventilation will maximize your dryer’s efficiency saving you time, money and your dryer. And it will pay for itself in the utility bill savings alone. Call for a bust today!
