Question From A Non-Home Owner

[plumtreeblossom]

Dryers pump their hot air outside of the house. So my question would be: during the winter months (in areas where winter is cold), why not have that warm air released inside the house instead, providing an additional source of both heat and humidity for that rooms and rooms near it?

What don't I know?

Comments

[strangeanimal.livejournal.com]

http://www.askthebuilder.com/228_Clothes_Dryer_Vents_-_Simple_Solutions.shtml

"Clothes dryer exhaust can cause major problems within a house. In your case you have two imminent hazards. One is a fire hazard with respect to the massive quantities of exposed fabric lint dust. An open flame could turn your attic into an inferno within seconds. I also suspect that you will have mildew growing in short order. The dryer pumps a large amount of humid air into the attic with each load of laundry that is dried. This warm, moist air is exactly the tropical climate that mildew thrives upon."

[dabroots.livejournal.com]

That was my thought, too. I nearly always see fluff gathered in the grass outside dryer exhaust.

[mizarchivist]

Yep, what I was going to say

[anniemarie75.livejournal.com]

We have an attachment to the dryer, where in the summer you flip a lid and the hot hair goes out, and in the winter it goes into the house.

So, it is possible, you just have to get the right dryer hose :)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That makes sense to me. As long as the lint is filtered, I see no reason to waste good hot air!

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Last place I lived, they did exactly that. There were these lint traps that needed water in them for it to work. Except a) it didn't work great at the best of times so there was always lint/dust everywhere, and b) the neighbor in the other flat (and my housemate in ours) were not the best at remembering to add water and remove lint from them. I think I had more respiratory ailments in the year I live there than in all the previous ten.

[nepthytis.livejournal.com]

Ravenous dust bunnies will take over your apartment.

[soothethemuse.livejournal.com]

This was my thought too. :)

AND, in our house, lint kitties. We have two cats and I'm not sure I'd want the bunnies and kitties fighting it out. hehe

[sernin.livejournal.com]

Seconding the first commenter.

Also, depending on the type of dryer - can be dangerous. Never vent a gas dryer into living space.

My dryer vent goes down into the slab of my house, and pops up outside. It holds lint and water in the lowest part, creating a big ugly lint bog. In trying to find other solutions, all contractors refused to vent into my house or garage.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I never knew there was such a thing as a gas dryer. I've only ever seen electric ones.

[beowabbit]

As it happens, my dryer does vent into the basement, via a little canister with holes in it. In the summer, you can feel the difference in humidity in the basement when the dryer’s just run.

When I bought the house there was (and still is, for that matter) an uninstalled dryer vent sitting next to the dryer. But there’s not enough space between the stone of the foundation and the first-story floor to install it. (I’m guessing one of the previous owners discovered that, and then set up the little bucket-with-holes solution.)

In the winter, I’d be leaving the basement door open while I dried to get some humidity in the rest of the house if it weren’t for Chickenfinger.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Odd, everyone in this thread is all LINT! OH DEAR GOD, LINT! But it seems a filter, and being reliable about cleaning the filter, would take care of that.

Remind me again why CF can't go in the basement? Is there a breech where she could escape to the outdoors?

[zzbottom.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine in Vermont does just that. Her covers the dryer exhaust with an old nylon stocking and just vents the dryer indoors and occasionally changes the stocking.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Why does this not surprise me? Gawd, I miss Vermont. If I hadn't married J, I likely would be living there *right this minute*.

Then again, if I hadn't married J, I likely would never have moved to Boston and met some certain people. So I think it worked out pretty well.

;-D

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

See, that makes perfect sense to me. With the right filter, the heat and some of the humidity could still be utilized without the problem of the lint.

Oh goodness no!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Massachusetts building code explicitly mandates that a dryer be vented to the outdoors.

This is a very common code violation, as people believe that they are capturing heat and do not realize what a hazardous situation this presents for them and their neighbors.

From what I am learning in the process of getting my home inspector's license, there is an urban legend that venting indoors is okay, but it is most certainly not, and I would not pass any home that does not vent to the outdoors.

Dryer lint is actually highly combustible, and needs to be discarded to the outdoors where it diffuses (to who knows where). Indoors, this will build up. One spark could turn a residence into an inferno. If you have neighbors as here in Somerville, you could burn their house down too in the process.

Dryer air is very moist. Imagine baking wet clothes, and living with that. From what I am told, another reason is to prevent mildew buildup inside.

Finally, the code does not distinguish between a gas dryer and an electric dryer. Gas dryers cannot vent to the indoors, as you could very easily kill yourself with good old carbon monoxide.

Also illegal are the plastic hoses you often see.

The best you could do to recover heat is construct your dryer vent out of rigid metal tubing (it cannot be longer than 25ft) and leave that exposed in the house to transfer heat before it is discharged, but this would likely lead to moisture precipitation inside the pipe.

So sadly, no. Heat loss is a fact of clothers drying life :(

Re: Oh goodness no!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

But what about a lint filter? Someone above mentioned that an old nylon stocking took care of trapping the lint.

I do get whay you mean about mildew, though. But would that happen even in dry winter?

That's even worse!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

The Massachusetts Building and Fire Prevention Code unfortunately cannot readily stop people from illegal acts in progress, even if the people are well meaning and intelligence and diligence are used to circumnavigate the hazard the code intends to protect.

I saw the story above and cringed a little, but these practices are (unfortunately) not uncommon.

The individual is clearly well-intentioned and they feel as if they have circumnavigated the hazard. They may very well have, but like many laws, it is applied uniformly to the smart and the stupid.

As I always say, such code violations are akin to not putting smoke alarms in your house (as required by code) and then saying that you'll just be careful and not start a fire. You may very well be, but the code makes no distinction.

In short, you cannot obstruct the exhaust from a dryer.

It's bad for the dryer motor, but worse, you are trapping the fire hazard inside your residence. Dryer lint can be strangely flammable, and nylon stockings aren't exactly NFPA rated inflammable materials.

The story above is clearly well-intentioned. They want to recapture heat and humidity lost in winter. They may diligently clean the filter and be far more safe than the average citizen in fire prevention. But at the end of the day, the code cannot factor in intelligence or diligence, and the configuration is still illegal.

Sorry to come off so passionate about this. I come across this a lot.

Re: That's even worse!

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

A weird idea

What with the heat and humidity, my first thought was venting a dryer into a greenhouse/solarium: concrete floor, glass surroundings. Plenty of CO2 and humidity for plants to grow!

Thoughts? There must be a green solution to this...

Re: That's even worse!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

At the time, no, there is no green solution that can meet the MA building code.

The thing about the code is that it does not allow for user diligence (or stupidity). Things are either permitted, or not permitted. Preventing fires is of paramount importance, especially in a city like Cambridge or Somerville where there are a series of wood frame houses spaced very close together. If a fire were to get out of hand on a block, the consequences could be tragic.

Of course, a safe and green solution could be had if a user were diligent and intelligent.

Electric dryers do not create carbon dioxide; it is the gas dryers that vent CO2 from combustion. The problem is, if something were to go wrong, it is possible that incomplete combustion of gas would lead to carbon monoxide, which is deadly (and no use to plants). So venting of combustion is not permitted into an occupied space.

There is also the issue of venting lint and preventing lint accumulation in an occupied space.

Does a greenhouse count as an occupied space? I don't know... If not, then yeah, I don't see why you couldn't put your dryer vent in an outside greenhouse. The only catch is that you are limited to an equivalent 25 feet of dryer vent line. Each turn counts for like 5ft, so you run out of length pretty quickly.

Code-wise, I think the most likely legal thing to do would be to vent to the outside as normal, and then have a greenhouse intake fan with a lint filter placed in close proximity to the vent to draw in the humid exhaust.