A vented dryer costs $1.12 a load — three times a heat pump.
It is one of the sharpest appliance gaps in the house: two machines that look identical from the front, one exhausting heat into the room and the other recycling it.
What a load of laundry actually draws
Unlike a fridge or a pool pump, a clothes dryer is counted by the cycle rather than by the hour. A standard vented dryer pulls about 2.5kW from the wall and uses roughly 3.5 kWh to dry a family load. At 32 c/kWh, that is $1.12 every time you press start, or about $234 a year at 4 loads a week.
A heat-pump dryer takes longer to finish the drum, which makes people assume it is using more power. The opposite is true: its compressor draws about 0.8kW and uses roughly 1.2 kWh for the whole cycle — about $0.38 a load, or $80 a year.
2.5kW draw · 3.5 kWh per load ($1.12/load).
0.8kW draw · 1.2 kWh per load ($0.38/load).
The rainy-week trap for solar households
Most Australian households use the clothesline when the sun is out and turn the dryer on when it rains. That creates a subtle catch if you have solar panels: the days you rely on the dryer most are the overcast days when your roof is generating the least.
Under light cloud, a 6.6kW or 10kW solar system will often still make 1kW to 1.5kW through the middle of the day. That is enough to cover a 0.8kW heat-pump dryer completely, whereas a 2.5kW vented dryer will pull more than half of its power straight from the grid. Moving a vented dryer into sunny midday hours drops its annual cost from $234 toward $37 in foregone feed-in credits, or a home battery can buffer the load when clouds pass over.
Test your weekly loads
CHOICE test range 2.75–9.25 kWh per load; 3.5 kWh/load moderate preset.
Most of these run all year. Drop it if you only use this one seasonally.
Most published running costs quote one national rate of about 33 c/kWh. Yours is on your bill, and it is the number that decides everything here.
This one can be moved into the middle of the day, which is where the saving comes from.
Estimate only. Running on solar is costed at your feed-in rate — the earnings you give up by using the power instead of exporting it, not zero. Appliance figures verified 2026-10-03; default rates 2026-06-22.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a clothes dryer cost to run per load in Australia?
A standard vented clothes dryer uses about 3.5 kWh per load, which costs roughly $1.12 a cycle at 32 c/kWh. A heat-pump dryer doing the same job uses about 1.2 kWh per load — around 38 cents a cycle, or roughly a third of the running cost.
Why does a heat-pump clothes dryer use so much less electricity?
A conventional vented dryer pulls room air across a red-hot 2.5kW heating element, passes it through the drum once, and blows that warm, damp air out into the laundry. A heat-pump dryer works in a closed loop: it uses a small refrigeration compressor (around 800W) to condense moisture out of the air and recycle the heat back into the drum rather than exhausting it.
How much does a dryer cost over a full year?
At four loads a week, a vented dryer uses about 728 kWh a year — roughly $233 at 32 c/kWh. At the same four loads a week, a heat-pump dryer uses about 250 kWh a year, or around $80. In larger family homes running a load every day through winter, a vented dryer can easily add $400+ to the annual electricity bill.
Can a 6.6kW solar system run a clothes dryer?
Yes, with one important distinction between the two dryer types. A vented dryer draws about 2.5kW while its element is on, which a 6.6kW solar system covers easily on a clear midday, but will exceed solar output on a heavy, overcast winter day when you are most likely to need the dryer. A heat-pump dryer draws only about 0.8kW — gentle enough to run almost entirely on solar even under light cloud.
Is it better to run the washing machine and dryer together or one after the other?
On solar, always run them one after the other rather than overlapping high-draw cycles. Stacking a 2.5kW vented dryer on top of a dishwasher or kettle can push instantaneous draw above your solar inverter's output, forcing you to buy the difference from the grid at peak or shoulder rates.
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