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Old 01-04-13, 12:16 PM   #71
MarkM66
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Yeah, I thought the humidity would be an issue.

If there was a simple way to trap/collect it....

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Old 01-04-13, 05:12 PM   #72
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I know someone who uses a dehumidifier in his basement. His basement is a leaky one without sill plates sealed, just fiberglass but apparently as the dryer finishes up the dehumidifier only needs a 15 minute cycle in the winter. Vented to the basement directly using one of those 'lint socks' designed for the purpose that he cleans out after each load, not sure what the correct name is for those. The energy usage of the dehumidifier in his case would be minimal in comparison to dumping it outside.

I personally don't think I could do this with my house, I need to take special effort to keep the humidity down in the winter, especially in a partially finished basement.
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Old 01-05-13, 11:26 AM   #73
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Lets just skip the dryers and go "au naturale"!

I have a high efficiency Fisher/Paykel washing machine. Has the ability to get clothes very "dry" after being washed (I've tried wringing out clothes by hand and still can't seem to get them as dry as that washer). The question is, has anyone just skipped the dryer and hung them out on the line OUTSIDE in a cold climate (zone 4 here)? I have done this before. The clothes do dry, but it seems to take a few days and for awhile they freeze into funny shapes. I would imagine in winter the process is sublimation? I should do a load of laundry and hang them...neighbors already think i'm nuts
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Old 01-06-13, 01:26 PM   #74
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Similar thread elsewhere - dehumidifier used for clothes drying...

Green Building Forum - Drying Room - brilliant results

might be worth adding a small fan in the drying area with that scheme to encourage evaporation I suppose. Too wet here for outside drying in the winter (especially this last month!).

Rainfall radar showing heavy rain across the UK - YouTube
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Old 01-06-13, 03:33 PM   #75
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Quote:
Originally Posted by warmwxrules View Post
Lets just skip the dryers and go "au naturale"!
Good advice for all.
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Old 01-08-13, 07:06 AM   #76
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Great discussion. The kicker in all of this is the darn lint. It complicates things and can be a fire hazard. I saw a on the use of the mylar (shiny plastic) dryer vent tubing. They suggested the use of either rigid or flexible aluminum venting material.

Regarding heat exchangers, I think that any design entails hundreds of small cross section channels is doomed to failure because they will fill with lint and lint is a good insulator/poor heat transferer and a fire hazard.

I think that a better design than the original cylindrical with fins would be simply a large flat relatively thin box where the dryer vent goes in the bottom and out the top. Fashion it so that one can remove the front panel easily for cleaning.

I also like the idea of making a heat exchanger and heating the input air from the output air. This is the concept of countercurrent exchange. One could have a large flat box sandwiched against a large flat box. One could put fins in the boxes that span the common wall, increasing transfer of hot to the cold but not interfering too much with cleaning.

Lastly, all these ideas have to compete with the spin dryer. I am not sure any of them can. The most efficient system seems to be ultra-spinning the washed clothes and then running them very lightly through the dryer (or even better hanging them) and forgetting about trying to grab heat from the dryer exhaust.
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Old 01-11-13, 10:47 AM   #77
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Glad I have an electric dryer. I have a box with a flap in it. Move the lever one way and the heat comes in for the winter. Move it the other way and outside for summer. My house stays too dry in the winter so moisture isn't an issue. A screen stops lint from entering the house and is easily removed for cleaning. (lint that I collect and use as fire starter in the wood stove) You guys that are making a system might want to thing about a bypass for summer if you haven't already. I doubt you want the extra heat when it's 90 degrees out.
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Old 01-11-13, 10:56 AM   #78
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The only bad thing is, if your house has a problem of being too dry in winter it means you got a leaky house and dryer heat recovery is the least of your worries. You should really look into sealing your house up better.
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Old 01-11-13, 11:02 AM   #79
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Oh believe me, I know.. 1903 church converted to a house; crawl space with no insulation. I have a LOT of work to do. Dryer heat recover was quick and easy. Low hanging fruit. I'm looking into encapsulating the crawl space because I think that may be the single most important improvement I could make, but the crawl space isn't very deep and it seems it would be difficult and costly.
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Old 01-12-13, 07:09 PM   #80
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chadb View Post
it seems it would be difficult and costly.
yep. You're probably looking at spray foam with a house that old.

Also as an aside: For all those who get spray foam quotes, I can tell you what the material costs. We are currently using Bayer SPF which seems to look pretty good on paper in regards to R Value and so on. We pay $ .50 per board foot. Open cell for air sealing only (R Value of about 4.something) is $ .11 a board foot.

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