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Clothes Dryer Venting

Started by Larry, November 26, 2008, 06:40:34 AM

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Larry

Just a thought...every time the clothes dryer runs it's sucking that expensive conditioned air out of the house.  Would it not make sense to provide an air intake vent?  Is that possible or even worthwhile?
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Sprucegum

We have a diverter on our dryer vent to keep that warm moist air IN the house  :o especially from now till April  :)
We have outside-air intakes on furnaces and fireplaces so it should be doable and I bet it would save a bit on the energy bill as well.

Stephen1

Sprucegum what do you use to filter the lint out of the diverted dryer air?
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Ron Wenrich

We used to vent our dryer inside the house.  To collect lint, we would put a nylon stocking on the end.  Cut off a leg from a pair of panty hose and use a rubber band to keep it on.  Low tech and low cost.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Sprucegum

The diverter we use has a little screen in it just like the lint catcher in the dryer.

  :) We don't get many nylons around here anymore  ;)

TexasTimbers

A stocking will not filter out the millions of small particles discharged into your breathing environment.

The net thermal gain in the living space, while possibly measurable when the dryer is running,  would be about nil over the span of a 30 day period I would think.

Of course if you have a family of four and both kids are daughters, and you live in a small home, the dryer might be enough to heat your whole house through the winter. :D

(I hope that does not rile the wimunz up too much) ;D
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

Tim L

commercial units are basically a milk jug with a couple inches of water and side windows . The hose blows into a top cut out for fit and the water catches the lint
Do the best you can and don't look back

Brucer

To answer the original question ...

Just had my elderly Maytag apart to extract a mouse corpse from the fan impeller. The airflow into the dryer goes something like this:
- air gets drawn into the body through vent slots in back,
- across the heating elements,
- through the drum,
- through a removable lint screen,
- through the fan,
- out the discharge vent.

The heating element is where the flow starts. It's in a metal tube which has a metal disk about 1" in front of the opening. The disk is to prevent the radiant heat from the elements directly hitting combustable material.

There is a 4" knockout on the side of the dryer housing which appears to be an alternate location for the discharge vent.

The cheap and simple way to do this would be to run a flexible vent to the alternate knockout (assuming your machine has one) and just let the outside air flow into the dryer body. The downside is that you will get outdoor air leaking into your house through the dryer when it isn't running. This is the method I would use, but I'd add a simple butterfly damper to the inlet vent so I could shut off the outside air when I wasn't using the dryer. It wouldn't hurt if you forgot to open the vent, 'cause air would still get drawn into the dryer housing the regular way.

The more complicated way is to extend the flexible duct inside the dryer (if there's room) and connect it to the front of the heating tube, but ... CAUTION: if you do this, be sure to put two metal elbows at the inlet of the heating tube so there is no direct line of sight between the elements and the flexible vent. If it were me, I'd make all the ducting inside the dryer from off-the-shelf metal components.

I make no guarantee the second method will work or be safe. There may not be enough airflow through the extra ducting, and that could make the air flowing through the dryer dangerously hot. Use at your own risk.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Dana

For those who are using an electric dryer I don't see any problems, except possibly, too much humidity in the house. For those with a gas dryer, wouldn't you be a bit concerned about exhausting the carbon monoxide into the house?
Grass-fed beef farmer, part time sawyer

Larry

Quote from: Brucer on November 30, 2008, 03:22:40 AM
There is a 4" knockout on the side of the dryer housing which appears to be an alternate location for the discharge vent.

The cheap and simple way to do this would be to run a flexible vent to the alternate knockout (assuming your machine has one) and just let the outside air flow into the dryer body. The downside is that you will get outdoor air leaking into your house through the dryer when it isn't running. This is the method I would use, but I'd add a simple butterfly damper to the inlet vent so I could shut off the outside air when I wasn't using the dryer. It wouldn't hurt if you forgot to open the vent, 'cause air would still get drawn into the dryer housing the regular way.

That's the direction I'm thinking about going. 

Guess I better explain little more about what prompted the question.  We are living in my new shop while I build a new house.  The shop is fairly tight construction.  One evening I saw fine ash coming from the wood stove in the slanting light of the setting sun.  Never would have saw it except for the direction of the light.  The fire in the wood stove had died out sometime in the morning.  The dryer was pulling air (and ash dust) from the wood stove.  I cracked a window slightly and the ash stopped coming from the wood stove.

In my thinking I thought an air intake for the dryer would stop infiltration of outside air.  Besides saving money on heating and cooling I want to keep the inside air...inside.  I've developed an pollen allergy at certain times of the year.  The new house is going to have some kind of fancy filter on the HVAC unit to zap pollen.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

pigman

Larry,The problem is you build your dwellings just too dang tight. ;) I am such a poor builder that I don't have to crack a window to get outside air for the wood stove or dryer, there are enough cracks around the doors and windows. ;D
Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.

sharp edge

Larry
Move north, the white stuff covers the pollen 6 mo. out of the year. 8) , just have to cut more wood. Some people here think there free B.T.U., but I'm from Missouri. I think you are better off putting fresh air in house and using house air to dry clothes same B.T.U. either way. What you are doing might help in summer with air condition on.
SE
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