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Old 12-01-13, 10:40 PM   #11
waterdigger2
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Sounds as if this would be a good project wonder if someone could rig up one split with their geothermal to use that ? Not sure if that would even be possible.though

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Old 09-05-14, 09:16 AM   #12
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A combo indoor/outdoor approach suited to the environment may work for many. I personally have experimented with my incredible 1.5cu. in washer - Haier and using very humid (55-65 dew point) Kentucky outdoor drying. Works very well. Rainey Jakarta or NZ might benefit from indoor BAG with circulated air from fridge or A/C exhaust. The idea of circulating through a moisture trap of ingenious design and adjusting for airflow efficiency, is not a bad idea. I am aware of microwave drying etc. but my interests lie in the least tech. best fit scenario, therefore, I am going for a hybrid approach described above. By the way my washer is going photovoltaic power (if all goes well) by December 2014. I even have my propane powered shower headed toward my mini van. I use a compost system developed by Joseph Jenkins (or did for one year) works Fantastic. The ref rig challenge looks like it will also be the 12v Engel MT35. Yes, all this may help to understand my interest in clothes drying/washing. People need to wash and dry too!
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Old 05-26-15, 08:27 PM   #13
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I just bought a dehumidifer off craigslist and I am going to give this a try. There are a number of parameters I want to test: air flow, air sealing, insulation, temperature, etc. I built a simple plywood/OSB box as a version 1.0 for testing purposes. Because our children are in cloth diapers, I have a regular washing schedule where identical diaper liners are washed/dried multiple times per week. This will eliminate the variable of different types and amounts of clothes being dried.

I just hope this works!
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Old 05-27-15, 07:43 AM   #14
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Welcome to the site Xzeption!

We'd love to see someone undertake this project. Please keep us updated.
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Old 05-27-15, 11:01 AM   #15
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This idea works like magic. If you put the compressor inside the drying airspace, it will add its heat to the process. The clothes will absorb this heat and dry faster. As a general rule, the refrigeration process gets more efficient as temperature rises, due to the higher system pressures. The ambient air also holds more water per cubic foot.

Another idea to consider, especially if utilizing solar heat, is desiccant dehumidification. In an arid or hot climate, this idea has been proven to work well. There have been a number of model homes built that use a "desiccant waterfall" to dehumidify the entire living space.

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Old 05-29-15, 09:56 PM   #16
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I gave it a trial run with a few hand towels and it works! I used tension rods in the box to hold up the towels. Due to space I overlapped them some. The parts that were not overlapped were completely dry. Now I have my shopping list of more tension rods, a scale, and possibly a thermometer to get solid data.

Eventually I will post a picture and description of the cheap cabinet I made. In the meantime here are the specs for the dehumidifier I got.
Kenmore model 106.57500790
rated at 50 pints / 24 hours (and possibly better depending on circumstances)
R-22
7.4 amps

The dehumidifier cycled on/off every ten minutes or so (I ran it for an hour total). It was pulling only 64 watts when the fan was on and the compressor off. When the compressor was on it steadily increased to maximum 1030 watts. I suspect the short cycling was due to a temperature gradient in the cabinet where the cold air stayed near the bottom with the dehumidifier. I could feel warm moist air slowly escaping the cracks in the top of the cabinet. Next I plan on giving it a try with a fan inside the cabinet to circulate the air.
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Old 05-30-15, 10:04 AM   #17
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Pictures would be great.
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Old 06-03-15, 09:29 PM   #18
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Default Cabinet description & picture

This is my first attempt to upload a picture, so please bear with me if this does not work.

This is the cheapest, ugliest, yet functional cabinet I could build. The corners are 2x4 boards 4 ft high. The sides, back and front are 2 ft x 4 ft OSB board. The sides and back are nailed to the 2x4s. The front (lying on the floor in the picture) is the same dimensions as the sides. I use some rope I had to hold the front to the box when in use. Another thin piece of plywood sits on top during operation. The dehumidifier is sitting on some spare plywood to keep it level. I added a board and some shims to hold up the box fan at the top of the box. The black tension rods hold the wet laundry.

I don't yet know how much of a difference the fan makes, but I intend to find out by measuring the mass of the laundry before and after to determine how much water evaporated.

IMPORTANT: This is obviously not going to be the final build. I don't recommend copying it. There is not enough vertical space for a load of laundry. After testing with this I hope to know the most important factors for a DIY dehumidifier dryer. In the meantime I am guessing that an old fridge or freezer may make a better box.

As an interesting side note, when I had the dehumidifier running and I was vacuuming, the circuit breaker tripped. This makes sense as the 12 amp vacuum + 7 amp dehumidifier > 15 amp breaker. Just something to keep in mind if the washer and dehumidifier dryer are on the same circuit they may need a 20 amp circuit breaker.



EDIT: Is there an easy way to rotate the image 90 degrees?
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Old 06-03-15, 10:35 PM   #19
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You have the analog equivalent of a unit I hacked. Mine was a whirlpool gold model. I inherited it at work: they used two of them to keep the powder paint booth bone dry. They ran all the time, forever. As preventive maintenance, one was replaced every six months.

Under the skin, these units are basically a 5000 BTU air conditioner with smaller heat exchangers. The metering device is a capillary tube, sized for a walk-in cooler. They are designed so the evaporator starts to frost up after 15 minutes or so of compressor run time if there is moisture to pull out of the air. A defrost thermometer senses when the evaporator is somewhat blocked with frost and stops the compressor while the fan keeps running. The frosty evap coil continues to dehumidify while the captured frost melts and drains off. When all the ice melts, the coil warms back up. The defrost thermometer then tells the compressor when to turn on again.This defrost function saves lots of watts during a normal run.

These units (ge, whirlpool, kenmore, hotpoint, Frigidaire, etc.) are beasts. They're built much more like the old stuff that was brown, much more durable than the newer, white colored plastic stuff is. I put an expansion valve in mine to make it move twice as much heat as it used to, rigged it a dozen different ways to run experiments, and tortured it mercilessly for days on end, and it still works just fine. Last year, it got turned back into a dehumidifier and kept the dank out of the basement.




naked shots of the unit

Please let us know if the box fan helps dry your clothes faster or not. With the amount of air your unit moves, it would seem to be a waste of electricity to me.

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Old 06-11-15, 08:55 PM   #20
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Time to explain my testing methodology. And for more pics. For a consistent drying load, I will be using the shown dozen cloth diaper liners. For the squeamish, this picture is of them clean but stained. I should note how much whiter these would be if I could line dry them outside in the sun to naturally bleach them. Alas, due to trees, weather, and HOA covenants (grrrr) I have to dry them inside. I've got my scale in the mail that will now be my scoring apparatus. The standard testing time will be 60 minutes. The mass of the liners before drying minus the mass after will give me the water removed.

To start, I tested the liners in the standard tumble clothes dryer. Diaper manufacturers recommend the low temperature setting (about 125 degrees F). The beginning mass was 1433 grams and the ending mass was 762 grams for water removal of 671 grams. The completely dry mass of the liners is approximately 730 grams, so the tumble dryer almost gets the job done (95% of water removed) in 60 minutes. But the cost is in the ridiculous amount of electricity it consumes and the conditioned air it sends outside.

Tonight I tested hanging the liners inside as shown. With no air movement and my house at 78 degrees F with high humidity, I didn't expect much from this low energy method. The water evaporates into the air, and the AC must eventually remove it. The starting mass was 1415 g and the ending mass was 1360 g for a total of 55 g water removed. Not that impressive, only 8% of the water removed, but I wanted the data for comparison purposes.

For the next cycle I will be thoroughly testing the dehumidifier dryer. I hope to find the right combination of conditions to increase the drying capability to near that of the tumble dryer.






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