[SML] Gas or Electric for Dryers

[Mt. Angel Performing Arts Center]

Most low pressure natural gas appliances are provided with more air than 
they need so combustion is essentially complete. The products of 
combustion are water and CO2.

A clothes dryer uses about the same amount of gas as a kitchen range 
burner - which are routinely operated without venting to the outside.

The exhaust air from the dryer first passes through the lint filter 
screen in the appliance and we have a water filter at the end of the 
process.

The exhaust doesn't bubble through the water (so there's no back 
pressure generated), it blows onto the top of a water surface so the 
lint in the stream is entrapped in the water and the warm, moist air 
helps heat the living space.

If there's a downside to this it is that we put a lot of moisture into 
the living space during the drying process. In winter, with relative 
humidity quite low, this added moisture raises the RH and you feel 
warmer at the same room temperature. Maybe that's not a 'downside' after 
all.

Also, someone commented on the lack of portability for a gas dryer 
versus electric... There are approved flexible hoses and quick connects 
for dryer supply - sort of the same thing used for gas-fired portable 
barbecues.

Carla

(Who spent a lot of time earlier in life optimizing fuel/air ratios and 
combustion efficiency in a cantankerous Diesel-fired boiler.)

On 12/19/2014 6:35 AM, Richard Niederberg via Stagecraft wrote:
> Dear Stephen,
> Along with the heat comes unburned natural gas, the products of
> combustion, or some mix of those two. Forcing the air/lint mixture
> through a water filter creates back pressure on the flow, which often
> leaves lint in the dryer or hose.
> /s/ Richard
> _________
>
> On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 6:18 AM, Stephen Litterst
> <litterst.stagecraft at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 12/18/14 11:59 PM, Richard Niederberg via Stagecraft wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Carla,
>>> Note:  You want the lint to leave, so don't exhaust it in your laundry
>>> room. Treated lint is the primary component in dynamite; The nitric
>>> acid has to have something to absorb it, when packaging the dynamite
>>> sticks for safe handling.
>>
>>
>> Richard,
>>
>> There are commercially designed lint traps for interior dryer vents. Some of
>> them are water traps where the exhaust is forced through a tub of water,
>> trapping the particulate there, while allowing the heat to then be vented
>> into the living area.
>>
>> Steve L.
>>
>> --
>> Stephen Litterst            Technical Operations Supervisor
>> litterst at udel.edu           Mitchell Hall
>> 302/831-0601                University of Delaware
>>
>
>
>