Clothes dryer exhaust idea?

Question

Has anyone found a way to harness the wonderful energy that's being wasted with clothes dryer's exhausts during the winter.

This question probably doesn't apply to clothes dryers that use humidity condenser exhaust technology, only the heated forced air exchange type. I was thinking of filtering the exhaust so that most or all fo the lint is caught and the heat could be channeled into the house. Since the air is also moist, this is a plus during the winter time since where I live the air tends to be quite dry during the winter, actually most of the year.

Answer 1

Gee Whiz...this "technology" has been around since the 1970's, during the first gas/oil crunch.

Basically you just vent the drier hose to a bucket that has some water already in it.  The water being released by the dryer is supose to mostly be caught there, with some being released into the house.

We tried it.  Problem was, it caused thick, gunky black mold around all the windows.  That extra moisture collects on the cool glass of your house.  It rolls down the window, and sits in the trays your window slides on.  This in turn becomes a lovely breeding ground for molds.  

It can work ok in REALLY dry desert area.  Otherwise, simply not a good idea.

Also of course is the fact that venting a dryer into a house voids any warrenty on the dryer.  More importantly however, it can void your HOUSE INSURANCE.  

Be sure to break out your house insurance and read the fine print, BEFORE you do this.

This is a bad design...anything that bends a dryer hose is a bad design.  Lint can be caught there, and cause a serrious fire hazzard.

http://www.improvementscatalog.com/home/...

This is the most common design you will find for the indoor venting of dryers:

http://heating.gillroys.com/Dryer_vents_...

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 2

Funny that you should ask. I was just thinking about that last night. I thought of a way of doing it, but was worried about the lint collecting and being a fire hazard. Think I 'll wait until it's  sold in stores so that if something goes wrong I can sue the manufacturer Ha,Ha!

Answer 3

Just duct the exhaust air through some cheap aluminum duct suspended from the ceiling of the living space, the heat will radiate right out into the room and be at a much cooler temperature when its finally dumped outside.

Of course this problem wouldn't even exist if people would go back to hang drying their laundry like they did for centuries prior to the mid 1950s.

Answer 4

A friend of mine did just that.  She lived in a nasty run down trailer (yikes) and was having trouble heating it.  she placed a screen over the hose and aimed it towards the area she wanted heated.  She cleaned the screen after every load, just like she would clean the lint trap.  She saved doing her laundry til evening when it was the coldest.  It worked for her.

Answer 5

Good idea.  With gas there are some serious concerns due to CO buildup.  With electric it's a great idea.  I've seen basket type products that do just what you said.  Unless they've been withdrawn from the market due to liability concerns.  (See previous answer!)

Of course, air drying does all this with no additional use of energy.