What does a clothes dryer (vented) cost to run?

A conventional vented dryer is the laundry's energy hog. It works by brute force. A big resistive element, typically around 2,000-2,400W, heats air that is then blown through the clothes and vented outside, so it draws heavily for the entire cycle. Used regularly through a wet NZ winter, it can become one of the more expensive appliances in the house.

Unlike a washing machine, where the drum spins for almost nothing, a vented dryer's whole job is making heat, and it makes it the expensive way, with a resistive element running near full power from the start of the cycle to the end. There is no clever multiplier here, just a lot of watts converted straight to warm air, most of which then gets blown out the wall.

The gotcha is how easily it becomes a default. When it is grey and drizzling for a week, the dryer is right there and the line is not an option, so load after load goes through it and the cost mounts up without anyone clocking it. Through a long wet winter it can quietly rise to rival the heavier hitters on the bill.

The cheapest dryer is the clothesline or an indoor rack, and even in a damp climate a good spin cycle plus some airflow does a lot of the work for free. Drying on a line or rack costs nothing at all, so hang out what you can, and even part-drying a load before finishing it in the machine cuts the run time you pay for.

When you do need the dryer, run full loads and clean the lint filter every time, since a clogged filter makes it work harder and longer. Spin the clothes well first too, so there is less water to evaporate, because every litre the washing machine wrings out is a litre the dryer does not have to boil off with its element.

If you are drying loads several times a week year-round, a heat pump dryer uses roughly half the power, about a third of the electricity of a vented model, and pays for the difference over time. For a heavy-use household that gap is real money each winter. Run your dryer habit through the calculator and it quickly shows why it earns the hog nickname.