In this paper, drying mechanism is analyzed for improving the energy efficiency of an electric clothes dryer which consumes more electric power than other appliances. For the purpose, characteristic curves of the dryer such as temperature, relative humidity, evaporation rate, mass transfer coefficient, remaining moisture content curves are experimentally obtained. Based on the experimental results and analysis of drying mechanism, the effect of power of a heater and heat loss on the power consumption of an electric clothes dryer are systematically presented. These results demonstrate the feasibility of controlling heat loss at the heater as well as the backduct component to decrease the power consumption of an electric clothes dryer.