Gas and electric clothes dryers do the same job with different energy inputs sold in different units at different prices, which is why the "which is cheaper" question has no universal answer. This gas vs electric dryer calculator puts both on the same basis using tariffs you enter yourself, and reports cost per load, cost per year and how long any extra upfront cost would take to recover.
Arb Digital publishes this alongside the other household cost tools our team builds. It contains no prices, no brands and no recommendation, because energy prices differ by country, by region, by supplier and by tariff, and any figure printed on a page like this would be wrong for most readers on most days.
This page is an arithmetic tool for general information only. It is not financial or purchasing advice. Every price and energy figure is one you supply, energy tariffs change frequently, and installation requirements for gas appliances are governed by local regulation and must be handled by a qualified fitter.
What This Gas vs Electric Dryer Calculator Does
It takes the energy each machine uses per load and the price you pay for that energy, and turns them into a cost per load and a cost per year for both options. Gas can be entered in therms, in hundreds of cubic feet, or in kilowatt hours of gas, since different countries bill in different units and the tool converts them to a common basis before comparing.
It also accounts for the electricity a gas dryer still uses — the drum motor, fan, ignition and controls all run on mains power — which is the single most commonly omitted term in this comparison. And if the gas option costs more upfront, including any gas line or venting work, it reports the simple payback period at the running cost difference you have calculated.
How to Use It
- Enter your loads per week. Annual figures are that number times 52.
- Enter each machine's energy per load from the appliance's own energy label, its manual, or a metered measurement. Do not guess if you can measure.
- Enter your energy prices from your own bills, including any per-unit standing element you want to attribute.
- Choose the unit your gas is billed in. Therms, ccf and kilowatt hours of gas are all supported and converted internally.
- Add the extra upfront cost of the gas option — appliance difference plus fitting — to see the simple payback, or leave it at zero.
The Formula: Getting Two Fuels onto One Basis
Electric cost per load is simply kWh per load × price per kWh. Gas cost per load is gas units per load × price per unit, plus the gas dryer's own kWh per load × price per kWh. Annual cost is either figure multiplied by loads per week times 52. Payback is extra upfront cost ÷ annual saving, and it only exists if the gas option is actually cheaper to run.
The unit conversions come from the US Energy Information Administration's Energy Units and Calculators page, which gives one therm of natural gas as 100,000 Btu, one cubic foot of natural gas as 1,036 Btu, and one kilowatt hour of electricity as 3,412 Btu. From those: one hundred cubic feet is 103,600 Btu, or 1.036 therms, and one therm is about 29.31 kilowatt hours of energy content.
Worked through with the defaults: an electric dryer at 3.3 kWh a load at 0.15 a unit costs 0.495 a load, or 128.70 across 260 loads a year. A gas dryer at 0.22 therms at 1.20 a therm costs 0.264, plus 0.15 kWh at 0.15 for the motor and controls, which is 0.0225 — 0.2865 a load in total, or 74.49 a year. The gas machine is 54.21 a year cheaper at those tariffs, so a 300 upfront difference takes about 5.5 years to recover.
Why the Answer Flips
Change one number in that worked example and the conclusion changes with it. Double the gas price and the gas dryer costs 0.550 a load, more than the electric one. Halve the electricity price and the electric dryer costs 0.248, and again the gas machine loses. Neither outcome is a property of the technology. It is entirely a property of the ratio between two local prices.
That ratio varies enormously. Some regions have cheap hydroelectric or nuclear electricity and imported gas. Others have abundant domestic gas and expensive grid power. Time-of-use electricity tariffs can move the answer within a single day, and a household on a heavily discounted overnight rate may find electric drying cheaper at 2am and dearer at 6pm on the same meter.
This is why the page publishes no prices and offers no verdict. The arithmetic is the same everywhere; the inputs are not.
The Terms People Leave Out
The gas dryer's electricity. A gas dryer heats with gas but turns the drum, drives the fan, runs the ignition and powers the controls electrically. That is typically a small fraction of an electric dryer's consumption, but it is not zero, and omitting it flatters gas.
Standing charges. Many tariffs carry a fixed daily or monthly charge separate from the unit rate. If having a gas supply at all is a decision you are making — rather than one already made for heating and cooking — that standing charge belongs in the comparison and can easily exceed the drying saving on its own.
Installation and venting. A gas dryer needs a gas connection installed by a qualified fitter and, in most cases, an external vent. If neither exists, that work is a real cost, and in some homes it is not practical at all. This is the field labelled extra upfront cost, and it is often much larger than the appliance price difference.
Heat pump machines. Modern heat pump dryers are a third category and change the arithmetic substantially. The US ENERGY STAR programme's page on Clothes Dryers states that heat pump models use around 70 per cent less energy than a conventional dryer, and explains that efficiency is compared using Combined Energy Factor, where a higher figure means a more efficient machine. If a heat pump model is on your list, enter its own kWh per load in the electric column and the comparison handles it.
Energy Per Load Is Not a Fixed Property
The figure on an energy label is measured on a standard test load under standard conditions, and your laundry is neither. Consumption per load moves with how wet the clothes are when they go in, which is really a question about the washing machine's spin speed; with load size, since a half-empty drum wastes heat; with fabric type; and with whether the lint filter and vent are clear.
Spin speed is the biggest lever and the least obvious. Water removed mechanically in the washer costs a tiny fraction of what it costs to remove thermally in the dryer, so a faster final spin reduces drying energy directly. If you want a more accurate comparison than a label figure gives, meter a few real loads on each machine and use the average.
For the electricity side of that measurement, the appliance wattage calculator turns a nameplate rating and a run time into kilowatt hours, and the electricity bill calculator works the total up against your tariff. The energy converter handles moving between Btu, therms, joules and kilowatt hours if your bill and your appliance label disagree on units.
Running Cost Is Not the Whole Decision
The arithmetic here answers one narrow question: what does each machine cost to run at your prices. It does not address drying time, gentleness on fabrics, noise, venting requirements, installation constraints, appliance lifespan, repair costs, or the emissions intensity of your local electricity supply — all of which are legitimate considerations and none of which is arithmetic.
For the whole-life view, the cost per use calculator spreads a purchase price across expected uses alongside running cost, and the energy use intensity calculator sets household energy against floor area. For a similar two-option household comparison built on the same principle of user-supplied tariffs, the bath vs shower calculator takes the same approach to hot water.
Arb Digital builds free calculators that take the reader's own numbers instead of publishing prices that go stale. Browse the library, or get in touch about a set for your audience.
Browse Free Tools Get in TouchCommon Mistakes to Avoid
- Forgetting the gas dryer's electricity — the drum, fan, ignition and controls all run on mains power.
- Comparing a therm price to a kWh price directly — they measure different quantities of energy and must be converted before comparison.
- Ignoring standing charges — if a gas supply exists only for the dryer, its fixed charge can exceed the entire saving.
- Leaving installation out of the upfront figure — a gas line and a vent can cost more than the appliance difference.
- Treating an energy label figure as your consumption — spin speed, load size and a clogged vent all move it substantially.
Related Free Tools From Arb Digital
Measure consumption with the appliance wattage calculator, price it with the electricity bill calculator, convert units with the energy converter, and look at whole-life cost with the cost per use calculator. The free online tools hub lists the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends entirely on the ratio between your gas and electricity prices, which varies by country, region and tariff. This tool computes both from figures you enter rather than asserting an answer, because the conclusion genuinely flips between markets.
Convert both to a common energy basis. Using EIA figures, a therm is 100,000 Btu and a kilowatt hour is 3,412 Btu, so a therm carries about 29.31 kilowatt hours of energy. The tool applies that conversion internally.
Yes. It heats with gas but uses mains power for the drum motor, the fan, the ignition system and the controls. Leaving that term out overstates the gas machine's advantage.
A ccf is one hundred cubic feet of gas. At the EIA's figure of 1,036 Btu per cubic foot, that is 103,600 Btu, or 1.036 therms. Many US bills are issued in ccf and converted to therms for billing.
If they apply to you, yes. Put the appliance price difference plus any gas line, fitting or venting work into the extra upfront cost field, and the payback figure will reflect what recovering that actually takes.
They are electric machines that use substantially less energy than conventional electric dryers — ENERGY STAR puts the reduction at around 70 per cent. Enter the model's own kWh per load in the electric column and the comparison works as normal.
Because labels are measured on a standard test load. Real consumption moves with how much water the washer's spin left behind, with load size, with fabric type and with how clear the lint filter and vent are.
