Heat pump Dryers

[nokiasixteth]

That could be the reason i wasnt finding none . I was tryin heat pump dryer.

[Servicetech]

Originally Posted by Mikesolar

Yea, there are lots overseas. Europe has a lot more energy efficient products than we have. There are a lot of reasons but suffice to say, we are our own worst enemy with import regulations and the evil UL, CSA, and all those standards producing groups. But that is another story.

The US pays about HALF at the pumps/utility bills what the rest of the world does for energy. The other 1/2 is in taxes instead of utility bills. If the US paid thier true energy costs on thier utility bills instead of paying 1/2 of it in thier taxes, things would be a lot different. The reason WHY is a big political discussion.

Nowhere else in the world will you find widespread use of central AC systems, everywhere else uses mini-splits. Nowhere else do they use 15MPG vehicles as their primary form of trasportation. The list goes on.

[where2]

I happened to look at one of the 7 models on Home Depot's website: LG 3.6 cu. ft. model. The striking part is the energy consumption per year in kWh: only 128kWh!! That's the equivalent of only ~25 loads in my electric dryer!

[nokiasixteth]

My old dryer shows 26 amps. Thats lot more than i had expected .

on the homedepot site it dont say anything about a heat pump. What should you be looking for to make sure it has the heat pump.
SOmething else that makes it better is there a washer and dryer combo. Use less space .

LG Electronics 2.3 cu. ft. Washer and Electric Ventless Dryer in White-WM3455HW at The Home Depot

[NiHaoMike]

That's most likely either a radiator type unit or a solid state heat pump. The former only makes sense in heating dominated climates and the latter isn't quite as good as a compressor based unit.

[Mikesolar]

Originally Posted by Servicetech

The US pays about HALF at the pumps/utility bills what the rest of the world does for energy. The other 1/2 is in taxes instead of utility bills. If the US paid thier true energy costs on thier utility bills instead of paying 1/2 of it in thier taxes, things would be a lot different. The reason WHY is a big political discussion.

Nowhere else in the world will you find widespread use of central AC systems, everywhere else uses mini-splits. Nowhere else do they use 15MPG vehicles as their primary form of trasportation. The list goes on.

You won't get any argument here. The difference, I find, between most of Europe and us is that the govts in Europe are (believe it or not) more responsive to population demands and legislation is there to service the people where ours is more likely to service the corporation.

They have high taxes on fuel because they don't want the kind of vehicle use we have. There just isn't room for 300 million cars on their roads. This is why they have such good transit. You get what you pay for, I guess.

They are the first to have below 50ppm sulfur levels in home heating oil (our fuel oil is upwards of 1000ppm). One of the companies that makes boilers I install, has an oil boiler in Europe that is just as efficient as a condensing gas boiler but cannot take it here. Won't work.

There is no stomach for that kind of govt intrusion in our lives, is there.....

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by NiHaoMike

The former only makes sense in heating dominated climates and the latter isn't quite as good as a compressor based unit.

Can you explain exactly what you mean by, "isn't quite as good"?

-AC

[jeff5may]

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

Can you explain exactly what you mean by, "isn't quite as good"?

-AC

A "solid state" heat pump uses peltier thermoelectric junction module to move heat, not a compressor.

Advantages: small form factor, no moving parts, variable capacity, no refrigerant needed.

Disadvantages: 4 times (average) less efficient than vapor compression cycle, relatively low heat flow density, made of heavy metals and semiconductor alloys.

I'm still not sure a "solid state" heat pump dryer is more efficient than a resistance dryer.

[NiHaoMike]

Solid state has an edge at high temperatures, but you don't really need high temperature to make a good dryer. Still high enough to make it challenging to make a refrigerant based heat pump, but several manufacturers have figured it out.

Any kind of heat pump dryer will be more efficient than plain resistance heat since most of the heat is recycled. In fact, I'm surprised there aren't very many heat recovery dryers (with what is more or less a tiny HRV) as they would offer a large percentage of the efficiency gains with only a fraction of the cost increase, though they would also need to intake outside air to fix the problem of adding "leakage" to the house. (That's a hidden energy cost of vented dryers intaking indoor air, both hard to measure and highly dependent on weather.)

If you live where A/C use is significant, a heat pump dryer can save a surprising amount while a radiator dryer would probably end up less efficient, assuming the dryer is in the conditioned space. If you live where heating use is significant, both heat pump dryers and radiator dryers can make for a good savings.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by nokiasixteth

My old dryer shows 26 amps. Thats lot more than i had expected...

Originally Posted by NiHaoMike

That's most likely either a radiator type unit or a solid state heat pump...

NiHaoMike,

Is there actually a 26 amp solid state heat pump that is being used in dryers?

I'm gob smacked that some corporation has had the guts to bring to market a product that is so monumentally inefficient.

Tell me more about this solid state miracle...

-AC