What does an electric clothes dryer cost to run?

Run the numbers on your own use

Change any of these and the figures update. The defaults are the typical case described above; your rate is the input that moves the answer most.

Why this is lower than the number you will see elsewhere

Almost every published answer to this question multiplies the rating on the label by the hours the appliance is switched on. For an electric clothes dryer that gives 900 kWh a year, or $165.

The element cycles on a thermostat late in the cycle as the load dries out.

The arithmetic, step by step

Nothing here is hidden, so you can check it or change it. Working in the order the formula runs:

1. 3,000 W — what it draws while it is actually drawing. This is the rating on the plate.
2. × 75% — the share of its in-service time it is really pulling that. The element cycles on a thermostat late in the cycle as the load dries out.
   That gives 2250 W averaged across the hours it is on.
3. × 1 hours a day × 300 days — One load most days.
   2250 × 1 × 300 ÷ 1,000 = 675 kWh a year.
4. + standby — 1 W for the other 23.0 hours a day, which is 6.9 kWh a year. People leave this out and it is not always small.
5. × 18.34¢ — the US average residential rate for June 2026.
   682 kWh × 18.34¢ = $125 a year.

Change any assumption in the calculator above and every figure on this page moves with it. The two that matter most are your rate, which varies 4× across the country, and the hours — the duty cycle is a property of the appliance, but the hours are a property of you.

How sensitive is that number?

A single figure invites more confidence than it deserves. Here is the same appliance under assumptions either side of the default, so you can see how much of the answer is the appliance and how much is the guess about how you use it.

Everything else held at the default. The spread here is the honest error bar on the headline figure.

What it costs per hour, day and month

At 18.34¢ per kWh, the US residential average for June 2026.

The thing worth knowing

A vented dryer heats air, uses it once and blows it outside, taking the heat with it. In winter it also pulls warm indoor air out of the house through every gap to replace it, so it costs the dryer’s energy plus a share of the heating bill.

Against heat pump clothes dryer

A heat pump dryer recycles its own heat and uses roughly half the electricity. Failing that, a fuller spin cycle and a clean lint filter. In numbers: an electric clothes dryer costs $125 a year on these assumptions, and heat pump clothes dryer doing a comparable job costs $73 — a difference of $53 a year, or $525 over ten years at today’s rate.

Both at 18.34¢/kWh, each on its own standard usage assumption. Ten years is roughly the service life of either.

What it costs in your state

The appliance is the same everywhere; the rate is not. Running this electric clothes dryer costs $359 a year in Hawaii and $89 in Nevada — a difference of 4×.

Cost of running one electric clothes dryer for a year, by state. Residential average price, EIA June 2026.

Other laundry costs

• Heat pump clothes dryer

  $73 a year

  One load most days. Cycles take roughly half again as long as a vented dryer.

• Washing machine

  $18 a year

  One cold-water load most days.

• Clothes iron

  $3.81 a year

  Half an hour, about twice a week.

Questions

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, June 2026. U.S. Government work, public domain.

How every figure on this page is computed · Where the data comes from