Gas vs Electric Dryer Calculator

Background.

A clothes dryer is mostly a heater with a fan attached: its job is to evaporate the water the spin cycle left behind, and making that heat is where most of its energy goes. A gas dryer buys that heat from a burner, an electric dryer from a resistance element, and the two fuels are priced very differently. A therm of natural gas holds 100,000 BTU, about 29.3 kWh of heat, so at $1.50 a therm gas heat costs roughly 5 cents per kWh-equivalent. At the 18-cent electricity price entered as the default, the electric element pays more than three times as much for each unit of heat.

That price gap is why gas usually comes out ahead on running cost even when the gas machine burns more energy. The default figures show it: 0.2 therms per load is about 5.9 kWh of heat, nearly double the electric dryer's 3 kWh, yet the gas load is still cheaper.

A gas dryer is not all-gas, though. Its drum motor, blower and controls run on electricity, so its yearly cost includes a small electric bill of its own, charged at the same kWh rate as the electric machine. Leaving that out flatters gas.

The headline figure is the electric dryer's annual energy cost minus the gas dryer's. Positive means choosing gas saves that much a year; negative means gas costs more at your prices. Both costs scale directly with the number of loads, so a household drying twice as often saves twice as much.

Running cost is only part of the decision. Purchase price, running a gas line, venting, repairs and emissions are all outside this comparison.

What is gas vs electric dryer calculator?

The comparison sets the yearly energy bill of an electric dryer against that of a gas dryer doing the same number of loads. The electric machine's cost is loads × kWh per load × electricity price. The gas machine's cost is loads × the gas burned per load at your gas price, plus the electricity its motor and controls draw at your electricity price. The difference between the two, in dollars per year, is the saving from running on gas.

How to use this calculator.

1. 01Enter how many loads you dry in a year. Count a typical week and multiply by 52: six loads a week is 312 a year.
2. 02Enter the electric dryer's energy per load in kWh. Use the manufacturer's figure for the model you are considering, or keep the 3 kWh default if you have nothing better.
3. 03Enter the gas dryer's gas use per load in therms and the electricity it draws per load in kWh. If your gas bill measures in CCF, convert with the therm factor printed on the bill.
4. 04Enter both prices as the per-unit rates from your bills, including per-unit delivery charges but not fixed monthly fees, which you pay whether or not the dryer runs.
5. 05Read the annual saving. A negative result means the gas dryer costs more to run than the electric one at the prices you entered.

The formula.

Electric cost = N × Eₑ × pₑ, where N is loads per year, Eₑ the electric dryer's kWh per load and pₑ the electricity price per kWh. Gas cost = N × (G × p_g + E_g × pₑ), where G is the gas burned per load in therms, p_g the price per therm and E_g the kWh the gas dryer draws for its motor and controls. The result is electric cost minus gas cost. Each fuel is priced in its own unit, so no therm-to-kWh conversion is needed. Because N multiplies everything, it scales the answer without changing which machine wins. The winner is decided by the per-load difference, Eₑ × pₑ − G × p_g − E_g × pₑ, and the break-even gas price is (Eₑ − E_g) × pₑ ÷ G. That is $2.43 per therm with the other defaults.

A worked example.

Frequently asked questions.

References& sources.

1. [1]U.S. Department of Energy. Energy Saver current 2026. Household energy guidance. Retrieved 2026-08-06.
2. [2]National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST SI Guide, 2008 edition. Appendix B unit relationships. Retrieved 2026-08-06.
3. [3]OpenStax, Rice University. University Physics, 2016. Volume 1 mechanics and Volume 2 thermodynamics. Retrieved 2026-08-06.