Whirlpool WED8120H Running Cost (Clothes Dryer)
Whirlpool WED8120H: running cost
ENERGY STAR certifies the Whirlpool WED8120H at 608 kWh/yr, about average for its category to run for its category.
The $114 figure above uses the simple average of all 51 published state rates. Pick your state for the real number.
Where this ranks
That's 6.3% above the clothes dryer category average of 572 kWh/yr, and ranks 394 of 639 certified clothes dryers for annual running cost, 1 being cheapest. Every one of the 639 currently-certified clothes dryers feeds that average, putting this model about $7/year over it. See how it's calculated on the how it is calculated page.
The closest alternatives by cost
Sorted by running cost among clothes dryers, one step cheaper is Whirlpool WED8000D+ ($114/yr, 608 kWh/yr), and one step pricier is Whirlpool WED8127L ($114/yr, 608 kWh/yr).
Comparing Whirlpool's own models
Whirlpool makes 114 ENERGY STAR certified clothes dryers; this one ranks 37 of 114 for running cost, between the brand's cheapest, the WHD3090G at $43/yr, and its priciest, the WGF5727T at $129/yr.
Whirlpool WED8120H over 12 years
NAHB's Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components puts a typical clothes dryer's service life at 12 years; run the Whirlpool WED8120H that long and it costs about $1,372 in electricity, on top of whatever it cost to buy.
Weighing a replacement
The Whirlpool WED8120H is already efficient for its category at $114/year. If you're shopping and comparing options, this is roughly what a well-chosen new clothes dryer costs to run.
Worth comparing a few current certified models before deciding.
Protecting what you have
Whether or not the Whirlpool WED8120H ever needs replacing, a repair is the more common failure for a clothes dryer, one a protection plan budgets for ahead of time.
The data behind this page
Ranked 394 of 639 certified dryers for running cost, the Whirlpool WED8120H is also worth reading with a caveat specific to this category: the methodology page explains why ENERGY STAR's own combined-energy figure for dryers can overstate the electric bill impact of a gas model. Whether a repair or a full replacement dryer makes more sense once the electric bill is this well known is covered in the guide to when replacing one pays off. The 608 kWh/yr figure is ENERGY STAR's own certification, not a wattage estimate; exact dataset IDs are on the data sources page.