As a drying system, heat pump drying with appropriate configuration is potential to safe energy. The objective of this research was to develop vapor compression heat pump system for rough rice drying and to obtain low energy consumption from several system configurations. Therefore, the model of vapor compression heat pump system was designed in which its configuration was modifiable. The result showed that the ratio of specific moisture extraction rate which calculated mechanic and thermal consumption (SMERTot) upon resistive heating dryer for those several configurations was 159 – 329%. The open cycle heat pump drying method with intermittent operation produced the highest specific moisture extraction rate which only calculated thermal energy (SMERT) and SMERTot at 7.06 and 5.06 kg/kWh, respectively. Intermittent operation did not much influence drying rate but significantly reduced energy consumption. Ambient air inlet which placed before evaporator and condenser on a closed cycle could produce different SMERTot i.e. 4.01 dan 3.07 kg/kWh respectively. The utilization of ambient air through forced convection in heat exchanger could increase SMERTot, while the utilization of air flow the dryer from outlet could reduce SMERTot
