03-06-13, 09:36 PM | #11 |
Master EcoRenovator
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Western Wisconsin.
Posts: 913
Thanks: 127
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Furnace blowers can draw 600 watts if you get a regular sized one and for drying cloths you don't need that much air movement! a few little computer fans would speed up the dry time, I have a 20 watt solid state dehumidifier that I set under my cloths drying rack and it seems to help a lot, it moves a little air, makes 20 watts worth of heat and spits out dry air!
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03-08-13, 10:56 PM | #12 | ||
Supreme EcoRenovator
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Austin, TX
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Quote:
What might be interesting for hot climates would be to use a heat pump to extract heat out of the room while drying the clothes... Quote:
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To my surprise, shortly after Naomi Wu gave me a bit of fame for making good use of solar power, Allie Moore got really jealous of her... |
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04-08-13, 01:11 PM | #13 |
Helper EcoRenovator
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 41
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I've done that. At this house though, I have neighbors practically in my back pockets, and they smoke, which they step out of the house to do as a favor to their landlady (nice lady, go to church with her). The downside of that is the prevailing winds make me the first recipient of their secondhand smoke, and I don't want my clothes smelling like that. My wife is a "super smeller," and she'd rather I set the clothes on fire than bring them in smelling like cigarettes.
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04-08-13, 03:11 PM | #14 | |
Supreme EcoRenovator
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 4,004
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Quote:
-AC
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I'm not an HVAC technician. In fact, I'm barely even a hacker... |
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04-21-13, 10:33 PM | #15 |
DIY Geek
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Sunny Florida
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^^^I second that thought, as my wife is severly allergic to smoke, she breaks out in hives.
I haven found that a 20W multi-crystalline PV panel can be coupled to quite a collection of surplus muffin fans. I recently acquired some muffin fans that move 120CFM while consuming 6W, and I am able to run 3 fans off one 20W PV panel. Works fine if you're home when it is sunny, but what if you work? Put a 12V charge controller on the panel, charge a 12V 5Ah battery. Now you can run the system after the sun goes down. If you use a charge controller with a low voltage cut-off, your drier will stop before it damages the battery. I realize the 5Ah battery is rather small for the 20W panel, but you can parallel the batteries for more storage capacity, especially if you don't run the system daily. |
11-09-13, 08:20 AM | #16 |
Apprentice EcoRenovator
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Moore Oklahoma
Posts: 267
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If you have gas service consider a gas dryer. They run for 1/4th the cost of electric in our area (every area is different depends on rates). During the summer our water heater, stove, dryer, and gas grill uses about $10/mo worth of gas for a family of 4.
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