[Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch

Benjamin Pratt benjamin.g.pratt at gmail.com
Sun Jul 22 16:35:16 CDT 2012


Quick google search found this nice little paper on the subject of
heat pump clothes dyers
http://eec.ucdavis.edu/aceee/2010/data/papers/2224.pdf
With a payback period of at least 27 years, they are hard to justify.
However, I would expect the payback to be shorter if energy prices
rise  (although I only skimmed the paper so I don't know if the author
took that into account).
OF course, hybrid cars are popular, and their payback period takes
many years. But I suspect that clothes dyers don't have the appeal, or
express one's values, as much as a Prius does.
-Ben

On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 3:29 PM, John Straube <jfstraube at gmail.com> wrote:
> Heat pump condensing clothes driers have ratings of around 250 kWh per year vs 900 for straight electric. These use almost 1/4 as much energy.
> You just can't buy them here. They are available in Australia Scandinavian europe japan.
> Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Benjamin Pratt <benjamin.g.pratt at gmail.com>
> Sender: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
> Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 15:19:50
> To: Green Building<greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Reply-To: Green Building <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch
>
> As someone who has training in mechanical engineering and industrial
> design, and who likes to take things apart, these are my observations
> about dryer design:
> 1. Todays electric and gas dryers are no more efficient, and not
> substantially different in design. than dryers from decades ago.
> Almost no progress has been made since electronic ignition replaced
> pilot lights.
> 2. Heat recovery in the winter would be a relatively easy
> step--especially with electric dryers. This helps the overall
> efficiency of the home, but not that of the dryer.
> 3. Washers that wring out the clothes better help the overall
> efficiency of the system, but not of the dryer.
> 4. The easiest way to make a dryer more efficient would be to increase
> the amount of air passing through the clothes, and decrease the amount
> of heat. But this probably would increase drying times.
> 5Perhaps its not easy to make a dryer more efficient--at least without
> increasing the drying time. Perhaps this is why dryers haven't changed
> much in decades.
>
>
> b e n j a m i n p r a t t
>
> professor art+design
> the university of wisconsin stout
>
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-- 


b e n j a m i n p r a t t

professor art+design
the university of wisconsin stout




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