Calling EPA: Heat Exchange Can Make Clothes Dryers Efficient

October 10th, 2009 by Susan Kraemer

You knew you keep a fire in a box in your laundry room, right? Not only is that kind of a scary thought, but it’s an extremely inefficient way to dry clothes; lighting a fire every time you turn on the clothes dryer. Lint catches fire all the time. But even worse, that natural gas emits carbon dioxide and is likely the second most extravagant energy expenditure in your home after the fridge.

[social_buttons]

We can do something about the fridge by buying an Energy Star rated efficient one, but until now, inexplicably, clothes dryers have not been rated under the Energy Star program.

You have to wonder why there has been so little move to improve energy efficiency in the second biggest energy guzzler in most homes…in a nation that uses 25% of the world’s energy.

Here’s a company that can make a clothes dryer 50% more efficient with a heat exchanger. Hydromatic. So why has their idea not been incorporated into clothes dryers?

A heat exchange system is an obvious energy efficiency improvement for those of us who’d like to reduce our clothes drying energy use, but just can’t get out to a clothesline.

This idea gets the clothes dryer into the same energy efficient camp as other appliances. The DryerMiser is a simple heat exchange device that reduces the clothes dryer’s energy consumption up to 50 percent and cuts drying time by up to 41 percent.

Hydromatic is attempting to sell the DryerMiser as a separate “aftermarket kit” that would replace the heating element in traditional clothes dryers, but that is an awkward way to market a radical concept like this. This needs to be an intrinsic element built-in to clothes dryers.

The company says that discussions have been underway with major appliance manufacturers to offer the technology as original equipment in new dryers…since January of 2008!

The EPA should just start rating clothes dryers under Energy Star, even though there’s not a dimes worth of difference between them now. This would give the major appliance manufacturers the push that they need to incorporate ideas like this heat exchange system into the simple fire-in-a-box concept that we are currently stuck with.

Image: Hydromatic

Source: Dryermiser

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

Tags: DryerMiser, energy efficiency policy, Energy Star ratings clothes dryers, EPA, Hydromatic

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

Ductsmoke

Are you all sick! Save money and energy, Get a cloth line!
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  That’s what I use.
Iluminada Ogata

Spot on with this write-up, I actually suppose this web site wants way more consideration. I’ll most likely be again to learn rather more, thanks for that info.
http://www.laundry-alternative.com Corey

Seems like a great idea, hope it works out. I like the idea of selling it separately rather than built into the clothes dryer. Just because it’s a good product doesn’t mean big appliance makers will want to do it. They might feel the price increase will decrease sales, for example.

Spin dryers such as at http://www.laundry-alternative.com/drying.htm are another great way to tackle the drying problem. They are about 100 times as energy efficient as conventional tumble dryers.
http://www.laundry-alternative.com Corey

Seems like a great idea, hope it works out. I like the idea of selling it separately rather than built into the clothes dryer. Just because it’s a good product doesn’t mean big appliance makers will want to do it. They might feel the price increase will decrease sales, for example.

Spin dryers such as at http://www.laundry-alternative.com/drying.htm are another great way to tackle the drying problem. They are about 100 times as energy efficient as conventional tumble dryers.
Daniel Jacobson

Thanks for making me aware of this great idea. I want to order one for my existing dryer.
Daniel Jacobson

Thanks for making me aware of this great idea. I want to order one for my existing dryer.
Daniel Jacobson

Thanks for making me aware of this great idea. I want to order one for my existing dryer.
Scott_T

I had this idea long ago and wondered why it was never done. First occurred to me when I saw those super efficient homes that were so air tight they had to circulate outside air to keep people from suffocating inside and they had these heat exchangers to save the heat/cooling from the air that was exchanged.
Scott_T

I had this idea long ago and wondered why it was never done. First occurred to me when I saw those super efficient homes that were so air tight they had to circulate outside air to keep people from suffocating inside and they had these heat exchangers to save the heat/cooling from the air that was exchanged.
Scott_T

I had this idea long ago and wondered why it was never done. First occurred to me when I saw those super efficient homes that were so air tight they had to circulate outside air to keep people from suffocating inside and they had these heat exchangers to save the heat/cooling from the air that was exchanged.