Hey guys,

Texasmom here trying to stay cool. My husband and I were wondering how many amps that an electric dryer pulls. The other day, we were trying to figure out why our electric bill was so much, so he had me turn each breaker off and on so that he might could tell something that way. I turned on the dryer and the whirley-bird thingie started going real fast.

Is that right? Can someone please help us out...

Thanks

The whirley-bird thingie, (I loved that) will spin fast, as a standard dryer has a 5000 watt heating element, and a small 1/2 HP motor.

If it runs one hour it will use a minimum of 5 kilowatt-hours.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tkrussell

The whirley-bird thingie, (I loved that) will spin fast, as a standard dryer has a 5000 watt heating element, and a small 1/2 HP motor.

If it runs one hour it will use a minimum of 5 kilowatt-hours.

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Thanks so much for repyling... is that the only appliance that pulls that much? I know that the AC unit pulls a lot, (I've got another question here about that too), cause the guy that checked our ac about a month to get ready for summer, said that our unit on the outside and inside together was pulling way more than it was suppose to, at 52 amps. He said both should only pull between 17 and 20 amps

Is there anything we can do besides gettign a new one for 4000, which we don't have?

Please help if you can.
Thanks

You can clean your air conditioner coils and the inside blower to get it to use much less electricity. I would guess that your outside coils are dirty for it to use so many amps, but they work together and the inside coils must be pulled and pressure washed to do it right, plus, the blower motor should be pulled and oiled and the blower fan cleaned well. It only takes 1/16" of dirt on blower wheel blades for you to lose 30% efficiency on that unit. Air conditioners should be cleaned yearly and you need a HEPA filter twice the size of the footprint of the inside unit; that means twice the size of the return on bottom of unit. It will take building a return box with filter holders installed. Well worth the money spent in lower electric bills and cleaner coils and air.

Good advice on the AC. Also, you can make your electric dryer as efficient as possible by cleaning out the lint filter regularly, and checking the duct that exhausts the dryer for any lint collecting. Also recommended to eliminate any fire hazards.

The HVAC tech is using good troubleshooting skills to identify the AC unit is draw more power than it should, but he should know how to clean the unit. He should know how to check the compressor and fan motors for any possible mechanical problems that cause it to draw more power.

One thing you can do in Texas to cut your bill in half after you clean your AC: Get a sprinkler that puts out a fine mist and put it where it will mist the AC coils on the outside and keep a little water on the AC condenser coils all the time. The evaporation of the water will cut the amps in half. You can build a device that comes on only when the AC runs so that when the unit comes on it will open a solenoid valve and spray the coils with water. On a regular AC unit you hook the solenoid to Y and Common. I built one for my father's store and it cut his electric bill way down.

The answer does not address the question. Electric dryers have a circuit load of max 30 amps. So when the dryer is running on high, turning at normal speed, you can expect it will be pulling at least 20-25 amps. So the is why when you turn in on, the 'whirly gig thing" starts going fast. If you notice when everything is turned off (let's say you leave just one breaker on for a light, it will move very slowly.

I bypassed the amps answer, since knowing the amp draw is irrelevant due to a utility meter measures and records watts and time, not amps.

You tunik a dryer draws a max of 30 amps since a typical dryer circuit is rated 30 amps. However, if you do the math, 5000 watts equates to about 21 amps, max.

Appliance circuits should never draw the rating to the circuit breaker, as circuits need to be rated 125% of the running load.