3 ms·

Dryer… exhaust? A what now?

leguminous 2y ago
I assume that, if you aren't being sarcastic, you're European? Or at least not American? You're currently down voted, but many Americans probably don't realize that some countries don't allow vented dryers. Vented dryers are standard here and many Americans have never seen anything else. They are indeed terribly inefficient, using the nice, conditioned, inside air once, heating it and then dumping it outside. All the air that is exhausted from the inside has to get replaced with air from the outside and has to be heated or cooled again.
- harshreality 2y ago
  As one of "[those] Americans", I take it that those dryers remove moisture with a condenser loop and a water collector, like an indoor dehumidifier would?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - Filligree 2y ago
    Yes, it’s going to either have a piped output or a collection tank. Both are common. The water ends up warm, so a collection tank is more efficient.
  - card_zero 2y ago
    Thus dumping the heat inside the house.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
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    [deleted]
- Filligree 2y ago
  European, yes. I’ve never even seen a drier with an exhaust, and it didn’t seem like a sensible option to consider. Aren’t heat pumps far more common in America than Europe? Why is it backwards for driers?
  - to11mtm 2y ago
    Heat pumps are becoming more common but almost every home or apartment I have lived in used Natural gas for heating and maybe a wall mounted or central A/C unit. Some homes in Detroit don't quite have modern HVAC ducting, instead using 'water circulated' heating. Theoretically they can 'cool' but IDK if I remember seeing that in a commercial/municipal building/school or if that was just a fever dream. That said, some buildings will use a 'shared steam' system (My college had Shared Steam for all the class buildings, IIRC lots of buildings in downtown Detroit have one.) But those examples are in a specific part of the rust belt. Up in the far NE (i.e. Maine, NH, etc) the remote areas use 'heating oil' and that may be harder to change; putting NG lines in would be unprofitable, and when the power goes out a heat pump is going to be, relatively, larger capacity drain than a blower on whatever's burning the heating oil. Only way to mitigate that would be an even larger generator, or an even larger bank of batteries. Which is a long way of saying, 'it depends'. And Heat pumps are 'relatively new' commercially. People won't be driven to replace until the cost of a repair vs cost of a new heat pump unit 'makes sense' financially (i.e. it's possible just getting a heat pump in may be 'cheaper' than whatever repair is needed within a certain timeframe... but to make the determination, someone first has to bother to do the math.)
    - Filligree 2y ago
      > Heat pumps are becoming more common but almost every home or apartment I have lived in used Natural gas for heating and maybe a wall mounted or central A/C unit. A/C units are heat pumps. Are you saying yours can’t do heating as well? We just installed an air-air heat pump at the cottage up in northern Norway. 4kW of heating (or cooling) for 800W of power, all on an off-grid solar system. :)
      - saltcured 2y ago

I assume that, if you aren't being sarcastic, you're European? Or at least not American? You're currently down voted, but many Americans probably don't realize that some countries don't allow vented dryers. Vented dryers are standard here and many Americans have never seen anything else. They are indeed terribly inefficient, using the nice, conditioned, inside air once, heating it and then dumping it outside. All the air that is exhausted from the inside has to get replaced with air from the outside and has to be heated or cooled again.

harshreality 2y ago
As one of "[those] Americans", I take it that those dryers remove moisture with a condenser loop and a water collector, like an indoor dehumidifier would?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- Filligree 2y ago
  Yes, it’s going to either have a piped output or a collection tank. Both are common. The water ends up warm, so a collection tank is more efficient.
- card_zero 2y ago
  Thus dumping the heat inside the house.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
Filligree 2y ago
European, yes. I’ve never even seen a drier with an exhaust, and it didn’t seem like a sensible option to consider. Aren’t heat pumps far more common in America than Europe? Why is it backwards for driers?
- to11mtm 2y ago
  Heat pumps are becoming more common but almost every home or apartment I have lived in used Natural gas for heating and maybe a wall mounted or central A/C unit. Some homes in Detroit don't quite have modern HVAC ducting, instead using 'water circulated' heating. Theoretically they can 'cool' but IDK if I remember seeing that in a commercial/municipal building/school or if that was just a fever dream. That said, some buildings will use a 'shared steam' system (My college had Shared Steam for all the class buildings, IIRC lots of buildings in downtown Detroit have one.) But those examples are in a specific part of the rust belt. Up in the far NE (i.e. Maine, NH, etc) the remote areas use 'heating oil' and that may be harder to change; putting NG lines in would be unprofitable, and when the power goes out a heat pump is going to be, relatively, larger capacity drain than a blower on whatever's burning the heating oil. Only way to mitigate that would be an even larger generator, or an even larger bank of batteries. Which is a long way of saying, 'it depends'. And Heat pumps are 'relatively new' commercially. People won't be driven to replace until the cost of a repair vs cost of a new heat pump unit 'makes sense' financially (i.e. it's possible just getting a heat pump in may be 'cheaper' than whatever repair is needed within a certain timeframe... but to make the determination, someone first has to bother to do the math.)
  - Filligree 2y ago
    > Heat pumps are becoming more common but almost every home or apartment I have lived in used Natural gas for heating and maybe a wall mounted or central A/C unit. A/C units are heat pumps. Are you saying yours can’t do heating as well? We just installed an air-air heat pump at the cottage up in northern Norway. 4kW of heating (or cooling) for 800W of power, all on an off-grid solar system. :)
    - saltcured 2y ago