Clothes dryer heat recovery system

Daox · 01-30-09, 01:11 PM

So, the attic project is winding down and I am looking for something new to do. I was reading a post here the other day about guys venting their dryers back into their houses and was thinking to myself how I wish I could do that. I don't think there is a day that goes by where my dryer isn't running in the winter. But, I have a gas dryer, so that isn't an option for me. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the amounts of water vapor is put into the air doing it. Especially when I think of the pains you go through trying to seal up your house.

So I was trying to think of a way to do this, and this is what I came up with. It really is pretty simple and eliminates the moisture problem. Start with aluminum dryer ducting and weld some aluminum fins on it. Thats it. You get yourself a relatively badly designed heat exchanger. But, its still a step up from aluminum tube, and a big step up from my current setup of wire reinforced plastic tubing. Perhaps adding a thermostatically controlled fan to blow over it when it heats up would increase efficiency.

Anyway, here are some pics.

Top view.

01-30-09, 01:11 PM	#1
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Clothes dryer heat recovery system So, the attic project is winding down and I am looking for something new to do. I was reading a post here the other day about guys venting their dryers back into their houses and was thinking to myself how I wish I could do that. I don't think there is a day that goes by where my dryer isn't running in the winter. But, I have a gas dryer, so that isn't an option for me. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the amounts of water vapor is put into the air doing it. Especially when I think of the pains you go through trying to seal up your house. So I was trying to think of a way to do this, and this is what I came up with. It really is pretty simple and eliminates the moisture problem. Start with aluminum dryer ducting and weld some aluminum fins on it. Thats it. You get yourself a relatively badly designed heat exchanger. But, its still a step up from aluminum tube, and a big step up from my current setup of wire reinforced plastic tubing. Perhaps adding a thermostatically controlled fan to blow over it when it heats up would increase efficiency. Anyway, here are some pics. Top view. Attached Thumbnails