Clothes Dryer
 

I am thinking about reducing my clothes dryers electrical demand, and in thinking about it I think you have to get away from heating any air.
I suspect incresing the air flow should achieve nearly the same result as heating the air.
Has anyone tried this? I am thinking of using a furnace blower, that rotating blade assy that moves a huge volume of air. I have a dryer that I can use for parts.I think the clothes tumbled into a huge volume of moving air should do the job. Any thoughts?

I'm planing to use my utility room as a drying chamber. I will make some clothes racks, & use a dehumidifier in my utility room. Might even include heat from the hot water tank. You can Google: drying closet

I welded some old and excess steel from the junkyard and my own yard into a clothes rack. After doing the laundry, I put wring dry my wet clothes, place them on hangers and air dry them in that rack. It's portable so I place them in the sunniest places inside my property.

It's easily portable when it rains or if you're leaving for the day, place it in the sunny side of the house but under an awning or the roof

Never spent a single cent on drying for quite some time now.

I see that you are living in Alberta. I'm not sure how the weather is there now, I'd guess it's cold.

I've read from quite a few members on this forum that they have problems with dry air in the winter time. Don't know if that's a problem for you, but if it is you could make the solution to one of your problems (dry air) also be a solution to another of your problems (wet clothes).

I use a normal clothes dryer now. It is electrically operated and gas heated. It's been reliable and fairly economical, but it does have a problem: it, like all other mechanical dryers, shortens the life of clothes because they are subject to so much beating & abrasion during the drying cycle.

I have heard the Europeans tend to not use dryers in part because of energy expense, but even more because of the wearing effect on their clothes.

The drying room idea does make sense in this regard.

But back to your original idea, yes, increasing air flow would increase drying.

Somewhere on this forum (you'd have to search to find it), there have also been some ponderings of making a dryer using a dehumidifier instead of a heating element. I don't think anyone has yet actually tried it.

Best,

-AC

Dry air can be a problem in the winter so extra humidity is welcome, though in my case my hot water tank is heated by my fireplace and vents off a little steam vapor and that keeps the house comfortable through the winter, though even more from clothes drying would be welcome, i agree hang drying is best for clothes, but sometimes you just have to hurry the process along.
I just want to do so with as little power as possible.

Hey, eddy - try routing a duct in from your attic. If it's hot up there, you can use the heat from there for clothes drying. I've thought about doing this, running a duct from the attic above my kitchen directly into the dryer and just run it on "Air Fluff" for a cycle to see how it does.

Absolutely brilliant!

Especially in the summer, this would solve two problems, attic heat and wet clothes...

But then... how about hanging the clothes up to dry in the attic?

-AC

I could see the attic air situation working well in the summer but if it's the summer why not just hang a clothes line? I guess rain can get in the way. In the winter it would be less useful than using indoor air because the attic should be the same temperature as the outside. If it's not then you have air leaks and poor insulation up there and you have bigger things to worry about than dryer efficiency. Also attics are generally dusty. And you would need a really good flapper of some kind or else the stack pressure going out that pipe when not in use would be tremendous. Most vent flappers are designed for out going air.

Which brings me to another point. My favorite perk of using a dryer is that is removes dust from clothing. It certainly also removes valuable constituents of the clothing itself, but it does a great job of removing cellulose!

About the fan to boost dryer efficiency. I started a thread about this a while back.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/applia...ryer-hose.html

Clothesline isn't right for everything
 

Clothesline in summer is a good thing, but I strongly prefer the not-crispy feeling of tumbled clothes for certain things: underwear I strongly prefer be dried indoors. Call me a prude if you must, it's just a thing with me.

Both I and the wife strongly prefer towels dried on the clothesline. Pants are a tossup. Shirts and socks, however, really need to go through the dryer.

I don't know how well the attic-sourced air would work in the wintertime. I'm planning on seriously ramping up my maker skills this summer, and may install a large solar air heater and/or solar water heating (might just go with a DC element in the regular water heater for that last) once I get all the items on the Honey Do list knocked out.

It's not the tumble drying that makes clothes more pliant, it's the tumbling.

So if you really have a thing for softer clothes, take the line-dried stuff and tumble it (no heat) for 20 minutes.

You'll save a bundle.

-AC