I finally settled on this dryer: SAMSUNG DV22N6800HW 24" COMPACT HEAT PUMP DRYER WITH 4 CU. FT. CAPACITY. I just got it installed a few minutes ago and put a load of clothes in it. It seems to be drawing around 300-400 watts.
It sounds like it recirculates the air, thereby saving energy by not having to heat cold air from the surrounding room and uses a heat pump (like your air conditioner in reverse) to produce the heat. I would think that like your air conditioner, the cooling coil would have to be filtered to keep it from becoming clogged with lint from the air. It would also need a fan to move the air over the cooling coil to draw heat from the surrounding (room) air. A little over $1,000, and sounds good... Does it run on an internal battery?
No, it plugs into the wall. It is like a dehumidifier inside a dryer. There is no vent and the water that was in the clothes just runs down the drain. You can buy them at home depot.
wintertime we vent the dryer into the house or hang the clothes on a rack in front of the fireplace to increase moisture and heat holding content on the atmosphere. if it's dry .. it's harder to heat this old house. summer time it's all about having less moisture in the house.
A dehumidifier is a one way heat pump. The units work pretty much as Dunerunner said. Air inside is heated by the waste heat from the condensing cycle (and probably compressor inefficiency, possibly some additional resistance heat), which allows the air to absorb more moisture due to higher temperature. The moisture laden air is fan circulated over an expansion coil (cold), where the moisture condenses and drips off into a drain. Cycle repeats. Conventional dryers certainly use more energy, but are far less complex to repair if needed.....strip heater, thermostat, motor, belt, timer is about all they are.....most folks could repair one themselves. Heat pump has many more parts that can fail, and would be beyond the home owner ability to repair, I'd stick with a conventional dryer until the long term reliability of heat pump units proves out.
l There is nothing made that transfers heat as efficiently as a heat pump, few mechanical devices are as reliable, and the technology has existed since 1927. I just wish I had invented it.
We are off-grid and our power setup will not support a conventional dryer. This thing does have a lot more parts compared to a normal one, I guess time will tell if it is reliable. Both of our kids picked up a stomach bug at school and are throwing up all over everything so we put this thing to work the second I had it hooked up. I am impressed with it so far.
It rains here all the time so the outdoor clothes line is pretty much out unless it is August and our house is underground so we don't want any moisture inside if we can help it. I thought about propane but I want to be self sufficient if possible and not have to rely on regular propane deliveries. We only use propane for cooking and I am trying to get several years out of one tank.
I like propane. I just had everything filled because it was supposed to get real cold this weekend but nothing out of the ordinary has occurred and it's going to be 73F today. I have burned about 50 gallons for convenience heating. Next this summer I'm putting my 250 gallon tank into service. I looked up the best time of year to fill up. Apparently after BBQ season ends and before it gets cold, LPG prices are lowest by 10% to 25%.
We put in a tank and I think they said it was 310 gallon but I am not 100% sure about that. This is our first year of using it and I cannot tell how much we have used, the gauge only shows marks up to 70% and we were above that last time I checked. I'll snap a picture of it next time I'm out there.
Am in the way preliminary stages of looking at an off-grid situation. Home brewed my own solar site with commercially available major components and it's powering a 21 ft Travel Trailer. At that it works well. One of the stumbling blocks has been washing / drying clothes. One solution to date is an old-fashioned clothes line, which I've used with success since I live in a dry climate (well, dry most of the time). An electric dryer is simply out of the question (over 5000 watts!) and my wife has bad shoulders so she'd have trouble hanging clothes. Propane is always an option, but I'm trying to set things up so that it is for backup only as much as possible, except for maybe a gas stove / BBQ grill and they don't take much. Some months ago bought a sun oven and have used it successfully as well. Can't believe how hot that thing gets. If a clothes dryer exists that draws 300-400 watts, that could be doable on solar.
A typical 250 gallon tank is going to be pill shaped, 2 meter long and about 1 meter in diameter. A propane cloths dryer draws a out 1,000VA on start up and around 400VA during run. The power surges up for the resistive gas ignitor.
You might consider a solar hot-box for drying clothes. Make it just over 1/2 a bed sheet tall X 1 bed sheet long on the inside. A simple insulated box with a fixed glass wall facing south. Use plate glass or old windows for the glass wall, and have a rollie-rack that can pull completely out from one end of the box. The rollie-rack (with attached endwall) would have several clothes lines strung across it lengthwise. Just pull it out, hang/drape the wet clothes, and push it back in. Install adjustable vents top and bottom to allow hot moist air out and cool dry air in, or just condense & drip the moisture out of the box like a solar still. That should work if you have enough sunlight. Plus, if it rains, your clothes don't get wet.
