clothes dryer

[badcars2]

wondering how your dryer was coming

cmon man, have a little heart and let the power company get a little money from you.
if we could just generate off of the spring on your property...ahh the possibilities.
i have an i dea for the dryer your thinking about. but honestly i would think more in the line of small radiator, than heater core. you know maybe slightly cooler air but with a much higher volume.
ill try to get by too see you at the shop this week, if i ever get another day off.
say hey to mama and the basketball team for me.
badcars2

 

[bassman]

so if my dryer is 4000 watts and runs for about an hour and I pay 10 cents a kw thats about 50 cents....right??

5o cents a day for 30 days is $15 a month to run a dryer...

I think there are bigger things to worry about .
Or am I missing somthing???

 

[mga]

so if my dryer is 4000 watts and runs for about an hour and I pay 10 cents a kw thats about 50 cents....right??

5o cents a day for 30 days is $15 a month to run a dryer...

I think there are bigger things to worry about .
Or am I missing somthing???

it's the psychological feeling of victory over the utility company.

we all do it, whether it's just an easy piece of insulation here and there or some major change.

even when buying 'energy efficient" appliances, they claim they'll save you $150 per year on electric costs, but you're getting rid of a working appliance and spending more on an 'energy efficient" one.

so......saving what you can, when you can, has it's benefits.

 

[Mike Van]

Bassman, you sound just like my 2 teenagers - I think the point is, it all adds up at the end of the month, in our house it adds up to about 125.00. If someones got another way to get something done for less, hey go for it! Adding up is why many of us heat with wood. 3.65/gal here now for oil. One family I know, 1200.00 for oil in January. Huge old house, these people are barely making ends meet due to energy cost. My kids - " it's only a few lights" or "it's only the TV"

 

[MS-310]

There is a set up that I did at my house it worked ok but my wife is crazy and needs to make sure the "press" drying mode worked and I said hell with it.

I stacked 5 100,000 btu exchangers and ran 2 sets of lines to them and ducted it in. I dont know if it was worth it I think it ran 2 times longer and I had 2 pumps running on it. I never did the math but its kinda crazy cuz I stacked 5 of them on there and put a Large blower on it to force it though small duct work.

There is a good post on this, somewhere.

Think of a 1200 deg. heating rod and 70deg air running over it and think of 180deg coil running 70 deg air over it and see what you get. Not the same.

 

[bassman]

Bassman, you sound just like my 2 teenagers - I think the point is, it all adds up at the end of the month, in our house it adds up to about 125.00. If someones got another way to get something done for less, hey go for it! Adding up is why many of us heat with wood. 3.65/gal here now for oil. One family I know, 1200.00 for oil in January. Huge old house, these people are barely making ends meet due to energy cost. My kids - " it's only a few lights" or "it's only the TV"

Don't get me wrong I too like to shut off the gas and only burn wood or see the meter barely turn but some times it is just not worth the hassle and time to try ans save a few bucks and in this case a few is all you will save.
I agree that kids don't see what it costs to have a 100 watt light on but replace that light with a 11 watt flor and leave it on.
when I was 17 my dad said to turn off the kights when I was not in a room and i thought he was a moron till a few years later and i now pay the power bill....

 

[Mogollon]

Dry Clothes

We heat our house with an OWB forced air, and have a supply duct and outlet going to a closet in the hallway where we hang jackets, wet clothes, boots etc. I did put a small grill to relieve the air and get it back to the main return. Doesn't take to long to dry things out and its nice putting on a warm coat before going outside. Other times the solar clothesline works well!

 

[CLEARVIEW TREE]

Englander wood stove success

Bought an englander wood stove. I think its got like a 70%efficiency rating. Great stove,real nice. The bill got nicer though. 1st month bill dropped from 144.26 to 89.50. Runnin in the eve and then the HVAC kicks on from like 3-7am. Then i leave w coals in the stove and the HVAC off. My home is 1456sq ft up and 1456 sq ft down. Man they pay up fast brother:rockn:

 

[HITMAN82]

I'm new to this site, I'm building a dryer heat exchanger and landed here thanks to Google.

Off topic background:
I have an OWB that heats my R2K home with radiant floor heating. I also heat my two hot water tanks thanks to homemade heat exchangers. The first heat exchanger worked so well that I had to reduce the HTM supply because of the danger of scalding! The OWB also heats my outdoor cisterns when the temp drops below freezing, which is rare here on Vancouver Island. A heated pool is planned for the future, and possibly a hot tub. Right now my heating needs are low enough that I use about 10 cubic feet of seasoned (dried 2 years) fir firewood per day, cut from deadfalls on my large forested property. I have two 80W low-throughput pumps at the furnace to move the water 80' to my house (through home-made supply lines) I am setting them up to run off a UPS due to frequent power outages.

On topic: the dryer heat exchanger.
I've started my homemade dryer heat exchanger project. I made a radiator that has 14 gauge copper wire soldered across 4 1/2" copper pipes, and put it in a 2'x1'/1.5" wooden box and attached it to the side of the dryer. The air passes over the rad and I get about 35 degrees C out of the unit. I have 2 computer case fans to pull the air through into the dryer, and it takes 2-3 hours to dry a full load of laundry using the air fluff cycle on the dryer (tumble motor is 110v 5.5A 1/3rd HP). Not content with the time, I am now tweaking my rad. If I can't get the temp over 40 C then I will return to the drawing board and try an old car radiator. If any of you have pictures or want to describe in detail your dryer rad, please do so, I'd appreciate it.