Model
Whirlpool WED7120H**
Rank #299 means 298 of the 615 clothes dryer models we track cost less to run each year; the 50th efficiency percentile means it uses less energy for its size than 50% of those models.
What does the Whirlpool WED7120H** cost to run per year?
The Whirlpool WED7120H** costs about $113 a year to run, a fairly typical figure for the class; it ranks #299 of 615. Capacity-normalized, it ranks ahead of 50% of clothes dryer models we track, right in the class's middle band. The CEF figure of 3.93 on this model captures combined energy factor, the main efficiency lever ENERGY STAR tracks for this class.
Immediately around it on the leaderboard, the Whirlpool WED8120H** at $113/yr runs a little cheaper and the Whirlpool YWED7120H** at $113/yr runs a little more, a sense of how tightly models are packed at this point in the ranking. A clothes dryer typically stays in service for somewhere around 13 years; over that span, the Whirlpool WED7120H**'s $113/yr adds up to roughly $1469 in electricity alone, before purchase price or repairs.
Also sold as: Amana NED5800H**.
By the numbers
The Whirlpool WED7120H** normalized against its whole class, so each figure means something.
What it costs you over time
Running cost is an every-year number, so it compounds. At $113/yr, here is what the Whirlpool WED7120H** adds up to before purchase price, water, or repairs enter the math.
Left running for a decade at today's US average rate, the Whirlpool WED7120H** costs about $1130. That is roughly $0 less than the class median, which would run closer to $1130 over the same ten years.
How the Whirlpool WED7120H** compares
The clothes dryer class we track runs from $23 to $128 a year. At $113/yr, it sits right on the class median of $113, and it is about $90 a year more than the cheapest clothes dryer to run at $23.
What drives its running cost
At 7.4 cu ft, the Whirlpool WED7120H** is a small clothes dryer for its class, which spans 3.8 to 9.2 cu ft with a median of 7.4 cu ft, at the small end of the class, capacity itself is doing a lot of the work to keep that figure down, separate from how efficient the unit actually is. Beyond size, its CEF of 3.93, above the class median of 3.93, is the class's own efficiency yardstick, combined energy factor, and it is what separates two similarly sized models with different running costs.
- Heat source and Combined Energy Factor (CEF). Heat-pump dryers recycle heat instead of generating it fresh with a resistance coil, and typically use meaningfully less electricity per load than a conventional resistance dryer, at the cost of a longer cycle; CEF is the federal figure that captures this.
- Drum capacity. A larger drum can dry a bigger load per cycle, but it also usually needs more energy per cycle to heat the extra air volume.
Common questions
Is the Whirlpool WED7120H** cheap to run?
Roughly, yes. Its $113/yr figure is close to the class median, ranking #299 of 615, neither a bargain nor a splurge on running cost.
How much does the Whirlpool WED7120H** cost per month?
About $9.4 a month, which is the $113 annual estimate spread across twelve months at the US average rate of $0.1856/kWh. Your own bill scales with your local electricity rate and how heavily you use it.
How is this running-cost figure calculated?
The formula is annual kWh times price per kWh: 608 kWh from ENERGY STAR times the US average of $0.1856/kWh comes to about $113 a year. It covers electricity only, not the purchase price, water, or installation.
How efficient is the Whirlpool WED7120H** for its size?
50th percentile once size is factored in, a fairly typical result for the class.
Cheaper to run in the same class
| Rank | Model | Cost/yr |
|---|---|---|
| 303 | Whirlpool WED8120H**8.8 cu ft | $113 |
| 302 | Maytag YMED7230H**7.4 cu ft | $113 |
| 301 | Maytag MED7230H**7.4 cu ft | $113 |
| 300 | Maytag MED8230H**8.8 cu ft | $113 |
| 299 | Amana NED5800H**7.4 cu ft | $113 |
Source
ES_22856_WED7120H**_09232019180517_1917628View certified clothes dryer listingsENERGY STAR data as of July 2026Whirlpool and WED7120H** are used here for identification only and are not endorsements. Figures are computed by WattWise Labs from public ENERGY STAR data, not measured in our own lab.