My wife was riding with me in the car. She had just washed her hair and didn’t have time to dry it, so she opened a window and started to wind-dry her hair. She made the comment that this was saving all that money using the hair dryer. (It was a nice day.) She then stopped and wondered how much it did save.

So, to run the numbers, as an engineer will always want to do:

C = kW x t x r

where,

C = cost of electricity of using the hair dryer for one hair drying event, calculated in cents

kW = kilowatts used by the hair dryer

t = time of hair dyer use, in hours

r = rate of electricity cost, in cents per kilowatt-hour

For us, r, in the range of our confusing electric company’s tiered charges is around 5.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. The time, according to my wife (although I could have disputed this, from personal observation) would have been 5 minutes, or 0.0833 hours. The electric use rating of the hair dryer is 1875 watts, or 1.875 kilowatts.

So, we have:

C = 1.875 x 0.0833 x 5.5 = 0.86 cents

What I thought was that she obviously was not doing a full cost comparison between the cost of using a hair dryer. My calculation is only for the use of the hair dryer. But what about the extra cost of gas to propel the car with the added wind drag? On the other hand, there should be calculations made for the increase in air conditioning to cool down the home with all the heat added by the hair dryer. Then, there are the possibilities and the risk being taken that my wife will not hit her head on while we pass a branch, or a bird, or that she will not get chilled and get sick from drying her hair in the chilled air. This would involve probability and risk calculations.

When it comes down to it, it is just easier to dry her hair at home with the hair dryer.