A dryer that uses half the energy and may become Energy Star certified?

Honestly, how do teams of well-compensated engineers not make these types of innovations? Is there a side effect or some sort of half truth in here? I hope not - sounds incredible.

Perhaps if he did not decorate the device with hippies it would get more mainstream acceptance?

Booyah Amit! Nice work Stins, haha

The cycle time may be longer; while heat transfer efficiency might be improved, it would take longer to heat the oil etc. 

 

It would be interesting to see a calculation comparing the longer cycle time to the less efficient (but faster) electric coil heating dryers. 

I'd be interested to know who that European manufacturer is.

Sorry - but this is hype and doesn't make much sense from an engineering standpoint. 

 

Pretty much all electric dryers have the same efficiency of removing moisture from clothes -- it takes about 0.5 kWh per pound of moisture removed.  if you check the basic physics, it requires 0.3 kWh just to provide the heat of vaporization to the water.  Therefore, existing electric clothes dryers are about 60% efficient.  The 40% lost energy is mostly neeeded to make sure that the exhaust air doesn't condense inside the vent hose (the air leaving the dryer can't be at 100% humidity, it must be superheated).  So, if it's a dryer that spins a drum and exhausts moist hot air (like this invention seems to involve), you can't really get much better than the current approach.  That is why there are no Energy Star dryers.  

 

 You can achieve higher efficiency by perhaps using an entirely different approach for getting rid of the moisture, but you couldn't save 50%.  Of course, you could save 100% by  hanging the clothes to dry otdoors.  But, the system they describe can't work as claimed. 

Why don't you just get one of these things: http://greenhome.huddler.com/products/the-laundry-alternative-inc-centrifugal-spin-dryer

 

It removes a majority of the moisture from your clothes with centrifugal force rather than evaporation and then you just finish them off in the regular dryer for 10-15 minutes or just hang them.

 

I have one and it works great.

This is what many call a "sustaining" innovation, meaning something that can sustain profitable growth for the established companies in a market.

 

What would be a "disruptive" innovation is to create something that dries clothes without the need for a bulky and power hungry piece of equipment. Remember, people don't buy dryers because they love dryers; they just need their clothes dried.

 

 

Edited by petera650 - Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:43:49 GMT

It's a given that there are no standards placed on clothes drying efficiency by the DOE.  Since the only way to get enough heat generated in the drum takes alot of energy to heat, not to mention room temperature conditions and so forth.

 

Hydronic drying and heating has been around for a long time, however, no one's ever figured out how to equalize the pressure in the closed loop system of the hydronic clothes dryer,  until now..    You know water boils at 212 degrees. 

 

I've actually seen this appliance work..   For all those doubters out there,  it will be soon enough that every dryer manufactured will be heated hydronicly.

 

 

gohydronic

 

 

At first was a crude instrument,  however,  water has been replaced with Para-therm, a non toxic, food grade oil, that has flash point of over 500 degrees before it will com-bust.

 

The dryer also does not give off carbons, since it has an interior heating element, also, the threat of a dryer fire, due to lint, has been greatly reduced. 

 

So go hang your clothes out to dry for free solar energy,  but where I live I can't hang clothes out to dry, due to restrictions and mostly due to a cold climate.

 

Even if saved you 30% in energy usage,  what about the safety of drying your clothes??????????

 

See you later,

 

 

GoHydronic

 

 

Why not combine this technology with that of a spin dryer, first you remove the majority of the water from your clothes by centripetal force and then finish off the rest with an efficient heated dryer?

 

Put these two technologies into one package so people aren't loading and unloading different devices and you'll have a winner, IMO.

So where is this thing at anyway? I would love to have an energy efficient dryer. I email them and they said they would put me on their update list.

 Hi indianasolar, Welcome to the Greenhome Huddler. I see no mention of UL approval and nothing of EnergyStar ratings. The estimates provided Spin-X are a little bit on the wild side.

Such a device would save power only if it reduces the amount of moisture left in the clothes when they go into the dryer. I suppose such a device could do a bit of damage to delicate materials as well so not everything should go in it.

If you use a dryer of 5000 watts for 24 hours a month with a power kWh cost of 15 cents the annual cost would be less than 216 USD - where Spin-X calculates you will save 368 USD per year is beyond me unless they do a lot of loads. 

See the product listed at http://www.laundry-alternative.com/products/Spin_Dryer.html
It is still shown at the 134.95 price

Another URL - seems like the same thing though it is more costly at about 600 USD.  http://www.spin-x.com/m/netspindryer.html

Actually, Russ, I was wanting to know more about the Hydromatic Technologies Corporation Dryer.

I have not heard anything more about this so called dryer. It has been over 18 months since the they stated it was going to be available this past spring. At least I have a good front load washer that spins the water mostly out of my clothes.

Hi indianasolar,

I'm afraid you may have to wait a long time for this thing to come out of vapor land. The 'inventor' uses a certain amount of magic in his claims which make no sense.

1 kW of heat is 1 kW of heat period. If the dryer setting is too high and you are blowing excessive heat out the vent you are losing but that is just the dryer setting.

There is no such thing as what he claims and never will be. My pet duck may become Energy Star certified - not likely but it may happen - and probably about the same time as this contraption does.

Sorry to rain on the parade.
Edited by Russ - 9/3/09 at 9:04am

Very often you come accross a sales claim that a new type of electric heater offers superior efficiency. Since all electric heat is in fact 100% efficient, I view this (claims of superior heating efficiency) as pretty much as an instant and complete discredit.

Efficacy and Efficiency are different things, although often related & perhaps confused.

Clothes dryers do offer a variety of possibilities for efficiency gains. Most clothes dryers (including mine) use a constant volume blower, controlled by a simple timer, to vent moist air from the dryer. Pretty dumb.
I have often considered putting a humidity sensor http://www.parallax.com/Store/Sensors/TemperatureHumidity/tabid/174/CategoryID/49/List/0/Level/a/ProductID/554/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName%2cProductName or similar...
on our electric dryer's exhaust vent to monitor the actual exhaust humidity, with the goal of sounding an audible alarm once the exhaust humidity falls below a set threshold. I don't want to modify the dryer's controls else will violate the applance's electrical approval certification (CSA); important. Such an alarm (clothes are dry enough) would obviously save energy by preventing the operation of the dryer no longer than necessary...

I have also considered a small air heat-exchanger on the exhaust vent. Blowing hot air out into the cold winter night, regardless of it's humidity, just doesn't make much sence. May as well recover some of that energy for inside heat, and using an oil based heat-exchanger is reasonable enough. For us, living in BC, our clothes dryer is a winter-time appliance only, so recovered heat is a definate & measurable reduction in energy loss, and thus an overall energy efficiency gain. $$Payback likely minimal though.

Of course, during the warm months, we use a clothes line. We really do need a federal law forbidding municipal or strata bans on outside clothes-lines, that still exist in many a yuppie-ville.
M

For outside clothes lines just see most cities in Europe. In many areas every balcony looks like it is used for clothes drying. Rather ugly to look at but does not use much power.

The new Energy Star dryers do use the humidity sensor and washers are designed to remove more of the water from clothes during the spin cycle.

Due to the intermittent nature of a clothes dryer operation I also expect waste heat recovered from the dryer exhaust would be of marginal value. 

 

Bought a full size Bosch front loader and gas dryer several years ago.

I remember that the dryer had a temperature sensor and humidity sensor. The dryer automatically adjusted the heat setting downward as the sensors temp and humidity was lower. I do know that the clothes are cool by the time the cycle ends. Pehaps this saves some energy as the exiting exhaust does not need to be as high of a temperature when less humidity is sensed.

If I remember correctly, the Bosch literature claimed that the dryer used a smaller btu burner than what most dryers used. The literature also mentioned a higher fan speed to blow more air through the dryer drum. The facts were the same for the electric models.

I do agree with Russ' assessment on heat output per kw. Simple physics explains this.

The washer spins at 1200 rpms and extracts most of the water.

We have a gas range, 80gal standard efficiency water heater, grill and dryer. Our summer ccf usage runs 12-14 cubic feet.

With 5-8 loads of laundry a week I am guessing that the washer and dryer do not account for much of the gas usage.

 

Anyone serious about conserving energy, who has access to natural gas, should consider using this great energy source.

Appliances utilizing natural gas will loose not loose the electrical energy that occurs from the transfer of energy from the power plant to your home. A lot of electricity is produced from natural gas during peak periods of energy use.

Any electrical generator is not going to be 100% effieceint. Then you have the line losses to get power to your home. Natural gas appliances burn the power on site and eliminate these losses.