Heat pump dryer vs a vented electric dryer

A vented dryer heats air, uses it once, and blows it outside. In winter it also pulls warm indoor air out of the house through every gap to replace it, so it costs its own electricity plus a share of the heating bill. At the US average rate of 18.34¢ per kilowatt-hour the gap is $53 a year.

All comparisons · Both figures from the same duty-cycle model · EIA June 2026

Heat pump clothes dryer costs less by

$53a year

$525 over ten years · heat pump clothes dryer uses 42% less electricity

Heat pump clothes dryer 396 kWh a year against 682 kWh — at the US average rate of 18.34¢/kWh.

Heat pump clothes dryer396 kWh$73
Electric clothes dryer682 kWh$125

The verdict

The heat pump dryer wins on energy, and the counter-intuitive part is that it wins while taking longer. It recycles its own heat instead of exhausting it, so a cycle that runs half again as long still uses roughly half the electricity. Time and energy are different quantities, and the bill counts only one of them.

Side by side

Heat pump clothes dryer and electric clothes dryer are costed by the same function from the same dataset, so the $53 between them is a difference in the appliances and not in how each was measured. Heat pump clothes dryer draws an average 824 W across the hours it runs; electric clothes dryer draws 2,273 W across its own.

Both at 18.34¢/kWh, the EIA residential average for June 2026. Ten years is roughly the service life of either.

Heat pump clothes dryerElectric clothes dryerDifference
Electricity a year396 kWh682 kWh286 kWh
Cost a year$73$125$53
Cost a month$6.04$10$4.38
Over ten years$725$1,251$525

The assumptions behind those figures

Nothing above is a manufacturer’s claim. 900 W at 90% for 1.6 hours a day, 300 days a year, is where heat pump clothes dryer’s 396 kWh comes from; 3,000 W at 75% for 1 hours over 300 days is where electric clothes dryer’s 682 kWh comes from. The duty cycle is the input most published comparisons leave out, and it is why the ratings and the running costs are not in the same proportion here.

Change any of these on the appliance’s own page and every figure moves with it. The duty cycle is a property of the machine; the hours are a property of you.

Heat pump clothes dryerElectric clothes dryer
Rated power900 W3,000 W
Duty cycle90%75%
Hours a day in service1.61
Days a year300300
Average draw while in service824 W2,273 W

Does the switch pay for itself?

The saving is $53 a year. What that has to pay back is the one number this site does not have — what heat pump clothes dryer costs you, installed, after whatever incentives you qualify for — and quotes for the same job differ by thousands. So put yours in rather than have this page invent one, and the arithmetic runs in front of you.

Residential average for June 2026, from the EIA. Your own tariff may differ; you can read it off your bill.

The price after any rebate or tax credit you qualify for — that is the number the saving has to pay back.

Not how long it lasts — how long you expect to be the one paying the bill.

Saving a year
$53
Pays back in
—

once you enter a price

Net over 15 years
—
Electricity saved
286 kWh

a year

Enter the quote you were actually given, after any rebate or credit. At the US average rate of 18.34¢ per kWh the switch saves $53 a year — that is the figure your quote has to pay back.

The gap in your state

The appliances are the same everywhere; the rate is not. The gap between these two is worth $151 a year in Hawaii and $38 in Nevada — 4× apart, on identical appliances.

A year of each, by state. Residential average price, EIA June 2026.

StateRateHeat pump clothes dryerElectric clothes dryerDifference
Hawaii52.72¢$209$359$151
California34.74¢$137$237$99
Massachusetts29.61¢$117$202$85
Maine29.59¢$117$202$85
New York29.49¢$117$201$84
Rhode Island29.23¢$116$199$84
Alaska28.21¢$112$192$81
New Hampshire27.01¢$107$184$77
New Jersey24.95¢$99$170$71
Vermont24.44¢$97$167$70
District of Columbia24.39¢$96$166$70
Connecticut24.32¢$96$166$70
Michigan22.99¢$91$157$66
Maryland21.84¢$86$149$63
Pennsylvania21.73¢$86$148$62
Illinois19.89¢$79$136$57
Wisconsin19.56¢$77$133$56
Delaware19.29¢$76$132$55
Ohio19.19¢$76$131$55
Minnesota17.52¢$69$119$50
Indiana17.51¢$69$119$50
Virginia17.22¢$68$117$49
Colorado17.13¢$68$117$49
Alabama16.4¢$65$112$47
Georgia16.36¢$65$112$47
Oregon16.32¢$65$111$47
Missouri16.22¢$64$111$46
Texas15.94¢$63$109$46
Iowa15.93¢$63$109$46
Kansas15.71¢$62$107$45
South Carolina15.55¢$62$106$45
West Virginia15.45¢$61$105$44
South Dakota15.36¢$61$105$44
Wyoming15.24¢$60$104$44
Arizona15.18¢$60$104$43
Montana15.14¢$60$103$43
Florida15.1¢$60$103$43
New Mexico15.06¢$60$103$43
Washington14.91¢$59$102$43
Mississippi14.88¢$59$101$43
North Carolina14.74¢$58$101$42
Idaho14.37¢$57$98$41
Oklahoma14.33¢$57$98$41
Kentucky14.26¢$56$97$41
Arkansas14.12¢$56$96$40
North Dakota14.12¢$56$96$40
Tennessee14.07¢$56$96$40
Louisiana13.49¢$53$92$39
Utah13.37¢$53$91$38
Nebraska13.25¢$52$90$38
Nevada13.11¢$52$89$38

Questions

Does a ventless heat pump dryer really use half the electricity?
The heat pump dryer wins on energy, and the counter-intuitive part is that it wins while taking longer. On the assumptions printed above, heat pump clothes dryer costs $73 a year and electric clothes dryer costs $125 at 18.34¢ per kilowatt-hour — a difference of $53 a year, or $525 over ten years at today’s rate.
How is heat pump clothes dryer’s 396 kWh a year calculated?
Rated watts × duty cycle × hours × days, plus standby, times your rate — the same function that produces every figure on this site. For heat pump clothes dryer: 900 W × 90% × 1.6 h × 300 days ÷ 1,000 = 396 kWh, which at 18.34¢ is $73. Electric clothes dryer runs through the identical arithmetic on its own assumptions and lands at $125. The rate is the EIA residential average for June 2026; nothing here is a manufacturer’s claim.
Why does the slower machine cost less?
Because the two are not doing the same thing. A vented dryer creates heat, uses it once and throws it away; a heat pump dryer moves the same heat around a closed loop repeatedly. Running longer at much lower power is how it arrives at less total energy.
What costs nothing at all?
A higher spin speed on the washer. Water removed mechanically is water the dryer does not have to evaporate, and spinning is far cheaper than heating.
Does my state change the answer?
It changes the size of the gap, never its direction. The same pair costs $151 a year apart in Hawaii and $38 in Nevada. Whichever uses less electricity uses less everywhere; only what that is worth moves.

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