dryer heat

[pkellyc]

All this talk of saving on heat has got me thinking. My laundry room is on the main level of my house. Has anyone ever tried the lint catcher unit you attach to your dryer hose and recycles the heat into your house? I always wondered if it would blow all that lint everywhere and what about a fire factor?

[Chea]

2 problems with that idea. And yes I've tried it!

First you have the lint factor -- blowing particles back into your house.
But the worst problem is all that extra humidity if terrible for your house. I vented mine back into my basement and the moisture was terrible. I'm sure it'd be as mad for the rest of the house.

[canadian gardener]

My Bil is a heating and cooling engineer, and they advise against it in the strongest possible way.

Mold and mildew are the biggest problem with tightly closed houses and even with a drafty old house, they can't get rid of the moisture fast enough to prevent damage.

The point being that the dryer dumps all the moisture from the washing into the air in one big splash as it were. If you use a line to dry the clothes in the basement the moisture enters the air gently over a longer period of time, and allows the house to continue leaking warm moist air outside, and drawing cold dry air in.

For the house to get rid of the moisture fast enough you need it drafty enough that you'd be spending double or triple on your heating bills just heating all that fresh outside air.

which kind of defeats the purpose.

Mold causes a lot of health problems and you just don't want it or mildew to get a foothold into your house.

Don't use them.

And do watch interior moisture, because even in a dry drafty old house, moisture condenses on cold interior surfaces like window frames and room corners, and then mildew and mold has a chance to grow.