Clothes dryers consume energy for both mechanical
activities and the drying process. The majority of the energy used is for
drying. Both machine energy and drying energy are directly dependent upon the
number of loads dried. To estimate the energy consumption of these appliances, Equations
15 and 16 use the calculation method described by Wenzel et al. (1997).
ECf = ME + DE Equation 15 where ECf = Annual energy consumption for fuel f ME = Machine energy (kWh/year) DE = Drying energy in utility units (kWh/year or therms/year) Energy consumption is portrayed in “utility units” for each fuel type; the electric utility is kWh, natural gas utility unit is therms, |