Compare gas and electric dryer running costs, payback time, and planned total cost using your loads, rates, and fuel type.
Advanced options
Table of contents
How to use our Gas vs Electric Dryer Cost Calculator
- Enter Drying time per load and Loads per week based on your normal dryer use.
- Enter Electricity price from your electric bill, using the energy price per kWh and not the fixed monthly charge.
- Choose Gas dryer fuel, then enter either Natural gas price or Propane price in the row that appears.
- Open Advanced options if you know the dryer power ratings, purchase prices, extra gas install cost, or Years you plan to use the dryer.
- Check the results: the Yearly cost gap from choosing gas is positive when gas costs less to run, and negative when electric costs less to run.
Definitions
kWh: Kilowatt-hour, the unit electric bills use for energy. A 5 kW dryer running for 1 hour uses 5 kWh.
BTU per hour: The gas burner's heat input rate. A higher rating uses more gas during the same drying time.
Therm: A natural gas energy unit equal to 100,000 BTU [3].
Gas dryer fuel: The fuel choice for the gas dryer, either natural gas priced by therm or propane priced by gallon.
Cost gap: The electric cost minus the gas cost. Positive means gas is cheaper by that amount. Negative means electric is cheaper by that amount.
Break-even: The time needed for yearly gas operating savings to pay back the extra upfront gas cost.
Common mistakes and quick fixes
Mistake: Entering a total electric bill in Electricity price.
Fix: Use only the energy price per kWh from the bill, not fixed service fees or taxes.
Mistake: Leaving Drying time per load at 45 minutes when your usual cycle is much shorter or longer.
Fix: Enter the number of minutes the dryer usually runs for one normal load.
Mistake: Choosing Gas dryer fuel as Natural gas but typing a propane price into Natural gas price.
Fix: Choose Propane first, then enter the delivered price in Propane price.
Mistake: Entering Gas burner rating as a total BTU number for the whole cycle.
Fix: Use the BTU per hour rating from the dryer spec sheet.
Mistake: Putting the full plumber bill into Extra gas hookup or install cost when some of that work was needed either way.
Fix: Enter only the extra cost caused by choosing gas instead of electric.
Limitations & Key Assumptions / Boundary Conditions
- The calculator uses the same Drying time per load for both dryers. If one dryer would finish faster, edit the time or run a separate comparison.
- Electricity price, Natural gas price, and Propane price should be variable energy prices. Fixed monthly fees are not included.
- Natural gas fuel use is based on 100,000 BTU per therm. Propane fuel use is based on 91,452 BTU per gallon.
- Dryer ratings are treated as steady inputs for the whole cycle. Real dryers cycle heat on and off, so actual bills can differ.
- Planned lifetime totals include purchase price, extra gas install cost, and energy cost only. Repairs, rebates, vent changes, resale value, taxes, and financing are not included.
- The comparison covers a standard electric dryer and a gas dryer. It does not model heat pump dryers or time-of-use electric rates.
Methodology
How running cost is calculated
The calculator first converts Drying time per load from minutes to hours.
hours_per_load = cycle_minutes / 60
Electric dryer electricity use is the dryer power times the run time.
electricity_used_per_load = electric_dryer_kw * hours_per_load
electric_cost_per_load = electricity_used_per_load * electricity_rate
For a gas dryer, the calculator uses the selected Gas dryer fuel. Natural gas uses therms, and propane uses gallons. A therm is 100,000 BTU [3]. The propane conversion used by the calculator is 91,452 BTU per gallon.
natural_gas_therms_per_load = gas_btu_per_hour * hours_per_load / 100000
propane_gallons_per_load = gas_btu_per_hour * hours_per_load / 91452
A gas dryer also uses electricity for the motor, drum, controls, and ignition.
gas_electricity_used_per_load = gas_motor_kw * hours_per_load
gas_cost_per_load = gas_fuel_used_per_load * selected_gas_price + gas_electricity_used_per_load * electricity_rate
Yearly and planned lifetime costs
Weekly loads are converted to yearly loads with 52 weeks per year. Energy prices should come from the variable energy part of your utility bill, not fixed fees [1][2].
loads_per_year = loads_per_week * 52
electric_annual_energy_cost = electric_cost_per_load * loads_per_year
gas_annual_energy_cost = gas_cost_per_load * loads_per_year
annual_cost_gap = electric_annual_energy_cost - gas_annual_energy_cost
Planned lifetime totals add the upfront dryer costs to the energy cost over the years you entered.
electric_lifetime_total_cost = electric_purchase_price + electric_annual_energy_cost * dryer_life_years
gas_lifetime_total_cost = gas_purchase_price + gas_install_cost + gas_annual_energy_cost * dryer_life_years
lifetime_cost_gap = electric_lifetime_total_cost - gas_lifetime_total_cost
Break-even calculation
The break-even result compares the extra upfront gas cost with the yearly operating savings from gas. Negative cost gaps are kept negative instead of being changed to zero.
extra_gas_upfront = gas_purchase_price + gas_install_cost - electric_purchase_price
if extra_gas_upfront <= 0 and annual_cost_gap > 0, break_even_years = 0
if extra_gas_upfront > 0 and annual_cost_gap > 0, break_even_years = extra_gas_upfront / annual_cost_gap
if annual_cost_gap <= 0, break_even_years = N/A
Mini example
With a 45 minute cycle, 5 loads per week, electricity at $0.17 per kWh, a 5.0 kW electric dryer, a 22,000 BTU per hour natural gas burner, a 0.4 kW gas dryer motor, and natural gas at $1.50 per therm, the electric dryer uses 3.75 kWh per load and costs about $0.64 per load. The gas dryer uses 0.165 therms plus 0.30 kWh per load and costs about $0.30 per load. Over a year, the electric dryer costs about $165.75 to run, the gas dryer costs about $77.61 to run, and the Yearly cost gap from choosing gas is about $88.14.