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Energy Consumption of Major Household Appliances Shipped in Canada, Summary Report –
Trends for 1990–2009

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Chapter 6: Electric Clothes Dryers

In 2009, the average annual unit energy consumption (UEC) of electric clothes dryers was 921 kilowatt hours per year (kWh/yr), compared with 983 kWh/yr in 1992.16 Owing to the nature of the appliance, there is little potential to improve the energy efficiency of electric clothes dryers with current technology.

6.1 Average annual unit energy consumption by model year

Figure 11 shows how the energy efficiency of electric clothes dryers changed from 1992 to 2009. Average UEC decreased by 10 percent between 1992 and 1996, and has remained relatively stable since. However, the average annual UEC increased slightly in each year since 2005, reaching 921 kWh/yr in 2009, mostly due to the use of larger capacity units (see Section 6.2). Overall, the average annual UEC was 6 percent lower in 2009 than in 1992.

Figure 11 Average annual UEC of electric clothes dryers, 1992–2009

Figure 11 Average annual UEC of electric clothes dryers, 1992–2009.

The increasing share of front-loading clothes washers has helped reduce the energy consumption of clothes dryers because more moisture is removed before clothes reach the dryer (although this is not reflected in the UEC data). In addition, moisture detectors in electric clothes dryers automatically shut off the unit when a load is sufficiently dry.

6.2 Distribution of shipments by unit energy consumption

Figure 12 shows the distribution of electric clothes dryers shipped between 1992 and 2009 by average annual UEC. From 1992 to 2009, the share of electric clothes dryers consuming less than 900 kWh/yr decreased while the share of those consuming over 950 kWh/yr increased. This is mainly attributable to the increase in the use of larger capacity units over the period (12 percent). As outlined in Table A.48 in Appendix A, the average energy consumption per litre decreased by 26 percent, from 6.6 kWh/litre (kWh/L) in 1992 to 4.9 kWh/L in 2009.

Figure 12 Distribution of electric clothes dryers by average annual UEC, 1992–2009

Figure 12 Distribution of electric clothes dryers by average annual UEC, 1992–2009.

For a regional breakdown of electric clothes dryer data by UEC and distribution by channel, see Tables A.43, A.44 and A.46 in Appendix A.

16 Note that data for 1990 and 1991 are not presented because they are based on a small number of shipments and may not be representative of the Canadian market in those years.

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