The drying is a process that involves coupled and simultaneous heat and mass transfer. When a wet solid is subjected to thermal drying, two processes occur simultaneously. Drying is classified according to heat transfer characteristics in terms of conduction, convection and radiation. In thermal drying, radiation is easier to control than conduction and convection drying and involves a relatively simple structure. In this study, we measured energy consumption, surface hardness of paint and surface gloss with variation of surface temperature of drying materials and drying time. Drying characteristics and energy consumption between heating panels and hot air heating have been presented. The present study shows that a dryer using heating panels is more effective than a hot air dryer from the viewpoint of energy conservation. The hot air dryer, however, was not optimized and more studies on various parameters related to drying will need to be investigated for definite comparison of drying characteristics of the dryers. The result, even if limited, would present the effective availability of paint drying.