Patent ID: 8868243

Claim:
A drying machine comprising: a drum including an object to be dried; a fan to circulate air within the drum; a plurality of loads comprising a motor to rotate the drum and the fan and a heater to heat air provided to the drum; a communication unit to receive power rate information from an energy management system (EMS); an input unit to receive a drying process command from a user; a storage unit to store power consumption of each of the plurality of loads and store at least one load operated in each of a plurality of drying sections of the drying process; and a controller, upon receiving the drying process command, to recognize current power rates on the basis of the received power rate information, to determine whether the current power rates are higher than reference power rates, and to recognize a current drying section from among several drying sections of the drying process when the current power rates are higher than the reference power rates; and to adjust an operation rate of a load having a highest power consumption from among the at least one load operated in the current drying section, wherein the current drying section comprises a heating drying section and a non-heating drying section.