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Dryer Power Consumption Calculator

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Dryers are used widely in most part of the world to dry the clothes after they come out of washing machine. You can calculate your clothes dryer power consumption by using this calculator.

The rated wattage of clothes dryer varies from 2000 watt to 5000 watt. On an average most mid size clothes dryers used in household has around 2500 watt. If you use a 2500 watt dryer for 1 hour you can expect your dryer power consumption to be 1.5 kWh to 2.5 kWh depending on the moisture in the clothes and how loaded the dryer is.

Clothes Dryer Power Consumption:

The rated power of dryers vary from 2000 watt to 5000 watt. The power consumption of clothes dryer depends on the following factor.

  1. Size of Dryer – The larger the size of dryer, more is the number of clothes it can fit and hence more is the power consumption.
  2. Moisture in clothes – Clothes having high moisture content tends to take more time for drying hence more power consumption.
  3. Load on the dryer – A dryer with half load will consume less power than a dryer with full load because there are less clothes to be dried hence drying time will be less.

You can check your dryers wattage on the label which will on of the side panel or rear panel. If you don’t find a label then go to the manufacturer’s website and there you can find the wattage of your dryer.

If you don’t want to do any of it then, assume dryer wattage to be 2500 watt as most household have a dryer of this much size.

Dryer Power Consumption Calculator:

To use the dryer power consumption calculator and interpret the results correctly you need to know and understand the following four parameters:

  1. Wattage: Wattage is the rate at which your dryer consumes power. A 2000 watt dryer uses 2000 watt of power every hour.
  2. Operational Hours: Operational hours is the number of hours you are using your dryer. For example if your dryer runs for 1 hour daily then type 1 in the operational hours tab to know power consumption of dryer in an hour.
  3. Electricity Tariff: Electricity tariff is the amount your electricity provider charges you for one unit of electricity. I live in Mumbai, India here electricity tariff is Rs 12 / kWh. Type the electricity tariff in your area.
  4. Unit Of Electricity (kWh): The power consumed by any device is measured in units of electricity (kWh). For example a 500 watt AC running for 8 hours will consumes 500 watt X 8 hours = 4000 watt hours or 4 kWh of electricity.

Now that you know all the above parameter it’s time to use the calculator below.

How To Interpret Results:

The calculate result will give you an approximate value. Modern clothes dryer have moisture sensor which allows them to sense the moisture content in the clothes and accordingly adjust their speed and temperature for optimum drying. Hence in real life the power consumption values will be lower than the calculated ones.

However if want to know exact power consumption of your dryer than you can use a Kill A Watt meter.

Calculate Power Consumption Of A Dryer Using a Kill  A Watt Meter:

calculate-household-appliances-power-consumption-using-kill-a-watt-meter
Kill A Watt Meter Courtesy – Google Images

Kill a watt meter is a simple device used to calculate power consumption of any device.

You can buy it from amazon using this link. Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

To use the Kill A Watt meter, you have to connect your dryer plug to the Kill A Watt meter and then plug the Kill A Watt meter in your wall socket.

Then start using your dryer the way you do normally and you can see in real time how many kWh (units) of electricity your dryer is using.

To get an average value it is advised to take reading at least 8 – 10 times.

Check out this tutorial video from altE to understand how to use a kill A Watt Meter to track your appliance energy consumption. (Video link)

If you are planning to buy a new dryer then check out this clothes dryer buying guide from C-Net.

Conclusion:

You would agree that dryers consume lot of power and should be only used if at all it’s necessary.

For most of us we can avoid using dryer for at least half of the year by drying our clothes out in the sun. Hence, I would suggest you avoid dryers as much as possible and use earth’s natural dryer (sun) to dry your clothes.

Follow these simple tips to reduce your dryer power consumption.

Tips To Reduce Dryer Power Consumption:

  1. Reduce number of cycle to twice or thrice a week.
  2. Use your dryer when your electricity tariff is low (applicable for TOU plan).
  3. Start using a clothesline to dry your clothes indoors.
  4. Don’t overload or under load your dryer, in both cases you will use more electricity than it is needed.

References:


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