Heat pump clothes driers

[CADplans]

.. the manufacturers would be losing a lot of money on returns if it didn't work properly!.. and these can cost $1000 and up for a large capacity dryer.

Oh, do you mean like all the returns of the front loader washing machines that grow mold ,, etc,, if you close the door when not in use,,??
No one is returning those,,, relatively speaking,,

My top loader sits empty between uses,, no problems,,

Then there is the front loader washers leaking,, they will try to fix it,, please be patient,, :laughing:

and,, as far as "This Old House",, are you gonna trust the thermodynamics knowledge of a guy who's claim to fame is that he has been threading steel gas pipe for the last 45 years??

This Old House gets a nice payment for featuring new technology,,
they try to make it look anonymous,, but,, you can see right through that,,

 

[3Ts]

here's how it works. YouTube I've been reading it takes 15 minutes longer to dry clothes in a heatpump clothes dryer, but it saves a lot of energy in exchange.. the manufacturers would be losing a lot of money on returns if it didn't work properly!.. and these can cost $1000 and up for a large capacity dryer.

My wife tells me it currently takes 45 min to dry a load of clothes and she does 4 loads typically. That would add 1 hour to her work although she does other things while waiting. I asked her opinion on the time and she doesn't care either way, but it would drive me up the wall. Time has value as well.

 

[RalphVa]

This is NOT new technology. Been used for years in Europe as have heat pump hot water heaters. We've had "hybrid" heat pump hot water heaters here for about 10 years or so.

The heat pump works with the hot side to dry the clothes. Then the cold side is used to take the water out of the wet air from the clothes.

I'm a chemical engineer; so, I thoroughly understand refrigeration cycles. A heat pump just uses the hot side of the refrigeration cycle. For your house, it takes heat from the outside air, even down to around 10 F, to get heat into it on the cold side. The the compressor provides the heat to a coil inside the house.

A hot water heater and clothes drier operate on the same cycle. Hot water heaters will take heat from the house; so, they need to be in garages or utility rooms where this won't matter.

For the clothes drier, it has no limitations. It uses the hot and cold sides both in the way it works to take only water out of the clothes.

Heat pumps typically operate with Coefficients of Performance of 3 to 4. This means that they put out 3 to 4 times the energy that is input to the compressor. Our ducted heat pumps in this house have about a 3 COP; whereas, the ductless I have outside the wall here is near 4.

Ralph

 

[Diggin It]

I don't use hot to dry my stuff. Unless the Sun provides it. And I don't use any more movement than the wind provides. How will this newfangledgizmatronigadget 'save' me anything?

 

[Topzide]

It's a water heater. If it were a hot water heater, that would be a true waste of energy! Just could pass this one up.

 

[Gem99ultra]

And how much more expensive are they? How much more expensive are parts and service? Do they need frequent maintenance like some of the new washers?

And why would TOH hawk appliances instead of renovation projects? OH, yeah, they got commercialized into being a venue for product placement ads, one of the many reasons I stopped watching TV.

I also saw the same program where Tom was pushing the new fangled dryer. In the end he said it reduced the electric cost about 30% - 40%. hmm - maybe, but it probably cost 3X more than normal dryers. I don't think anything is going to be cheaper than a natural gas dryer, but that's not available for me and most rural dwellers.

TOH used to be a first class top rated educational show, but they've evolved into nothing more than a continuous commercial. Top show for one doing a restoration of a multi-million dollar historical home, but for us poor country folks, its not much more than entertainment. On the other hand, nobody ranks higher than Norm Abrahams as a wood craftsman.

 

[Diggin It]

In the end he said it reduced the electric cost about 30% - 40%. hmm - maybe, but it probably cost 3X more than normal dryers.

Same issue we talk about with LED conversions. You might save on your electric bill over time, but may not ever fully recover the purchase costs.

I don't think anything is going to be cheaper than a natural gas dryer, but that's not available for me and most rural dwellers.

Clotheslines.

TOH used to be a first class top rated educational show,

but for us poor country folks, its not much more than entertainment.

We talked about that on the previous 'older' thread ... back on the first season or two, they did projects that the typical homeowner could do in a weekend for a few hundred dollars with common tools.

 

[kthompson]

an old and simple way at low cost for clothes dryer is open the vent pipe into the house during cool weather using a ladies hose to catch the dust. If you don't have a lady to get the used hose from, well build a box and put a air filter in it.

 

[RalphVa]

Comment by a friend on FB: .the average dryer uses 3.3 kilowatt hours of energy and estimates an average of 11 cents per kilowatt hour. A small load of clothes takes about 45 minutes in the dryer, so the cost of that load is $0.36. If you figure a family does a load a day, and you could save half the cost... that is 18 cents a day and it takes 6 years to break even. Interesting.

Think I gave him $898 for a heat pump drier vs. $500 for a regular one.

I'm definitely going to probably get one when ours goes. Same for hot water heater. I'll replace with one of the hybrids.

Ralph

 

[Diggin It]

You're assuming it will run for six years, trouble free.


That's assuming an awful lot for new appliances these days.