[Greenbuilding] Dehumidification

[nick pine]

Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn <info at ecobrooklyn.com> writes:

>Does anyone know of an energy efficient way to remove humidity from a house 
>in Brooklyn NY where humidity outside is high in the summer.

Put some clumping cat litter in a glazed box on the roof and let sun dry it 
during the day and move house air through the box at night while trickling 
water over the glazing. The house has already been airsealed with a blower 
door test?

>I have earthen plaster already...need more dehumidificatiom though.

Ventilating when there's less absolute moisture in outdoor than indoor air 
would help. This requires a differential humidistat, aka enthalpy 
economizer.

"candtcampbell at juno.com" <candtcampbell at juno.com> writes:

>How does one use racks or hang clothes to dry without them getting stiff?

Let them get stiff? Tumble for a few minutes in a dryer with no heat?

Dan Barry <mr.danbarry at gmail.com> writes:

>We used [a condensing dryer] in Germany for last  2 years, a Zanucci 
>(Italian ) model. Much more flexible then the apartment model...

Made out of leather, like fine Italian shoes? :-) Clothes drying would 
require little energy if we could use the heat of condensation from an 
outgoing clothes stream to evaporate water from incoming clothes, in some 
sort of combined-cycle multiple-effect partial dehumidification system, as 
in some steam turbines. Do any "condensing dryers" do that?

(PE Norman Saunders always wanted to turn a jet engine into a heat pump, 
like an vortex tube http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube with less 
rotational energy loss. Spin and compress room air, then extract heat with a 
water jacket, then despin and decompress and output cold air through an 
output fan on the same shaft as the input compressor fan. Vladamir 
Kotelnikov measured a COP of 7 for a large low-energy vortex system in 
Siberia.)

The least efficient dryers seem to uselessly dump heat in flowing cold water 
vs air, followed by those that dump water vapor into wintertime house vs 
outdoor air, then those that condense water vapor and give back sensible 
heat vs humidity to wintertime houses, then those that use dehumidifiers 
with about 30% of the usual energy consumption. Where are the 10% and 1% 
dryers?

Nick