On Jan 27, 4:14*pm, Jules
wrote:
On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:31:43 -0800, terry wrote:
Heater elements are either 3000 watts or maybe 4500, haven't had this
one apart yet, since I got it in exchange for a dozen beer!

Our domestic electricity costs a little over 10 cents per k.watt hr.

So one load of clothes 45/60 x 0.8 a cost of electricity = 0.75 x 0.8
x 0.12 = 7 cents per load.

I think Mike's right - that should be 45/60 x 0.8 x 0.12 x kW:

*3kW works out as 0.75 x 0.8 x 0.12 x 3 = $0.22
*4kW works out as 0.75 x 0.8 x 0.12 x 4 = $0.29

... ours is on off-peak so gets 6c/kWh, but I can't remember the wattage
on the heater for ours either (and it normally runs for about an hour for
a full load)

I don't even know where to begin figuring out how much of that heat is
being lost into the house (rather than vent outside) and therefore how
much useful work it does for the six months of the year we need to be
heating the home anyway.

So maybe that could be say 12 to 15 cents per load. In summer we hang
bedclothes and towels on outside lines.

Yes, same here, when we can be bothered. Sometimes we're lazy and just run
the dryer anyway :-) Maybe for the summer I should be painting the thing
black and running it outdoors

cheers

Jules

Yes Mike and Jules, you are correct, my wrong math. It's more like two
to four times my original number. Thanks.