Red pepper is one of the most important agricultural products in Korea. Generally, raw red pepper is dried after harvest and the dried red pepper is powdered. Washing process is necessary to produce clean powder before powdering process. This study, therefore, was performed to analyze the drying characteristics of the rewetted red pepper and the energy utility during hot-air-convective and infrared-radiant drying. Drying effectiveness, De, was defined for the analysis of energy utility in this study, and its value was determined according to the energy source. Infrared-radiant drying was more favorable than convective drying according to drying effectiveness. But the temperature variation was appeared between the radiant surface and opposite surface of red pepper in infrared-radiant drying.