drying my clothes with wood !

[woodsmaster]

My clothes dryer broke and I used my panel rads and towel bars to dry my clothes.
Works pretty good ! I have a dryer now but still dry my towels and jeans on the rads. It seems to help a lot with the electric bill

 

[BoilerMan]

Thats cool! The only downside I can see is the excess moisture in the house, but maybe thats not a problem for you.

TS

 

[avc8130]

When we are burning the wood stove, we pretty much turn that room into a "dryer"! There are clothes hung everywhere to dry. When the stove is running in the winter, any moisture added to the house air is a bonus.

ac

 

[woodsmaster]

Thats cool! The only downside I can see is the excess moisture in the house, but maybe thats not a problem for you.

TS

Allthough the hydronic heat don't dry the air my house is old and dry. With the dry winter air any moisture is a plus.
Just means less filling of the humidifier.

 

[BoilerMan]

I just stated that because I have to be careful of moisture in the winter, super insulated house. Mose moisture means more ventelation needed to get rid of it.

TS

 

[Fred61]

I just stated that because I have to be careful of moisture in the winter, super insulated house. Mose moisture means more ventelation needed to get rid of it.

TS

I have the same problem. House too tight. Have been investigating air exchangers.

 

[shmodaddy]

Does any one know of a "kit" or a "way" to effectively use our boiler water in a conventional dryer?

Sent from my rooted and eclipse running X2--thanks nitro-- if im posting on here I'm probably supposed to be working! I can't help im addicted to HEARTH.COM!

 

[BoilerMan]

House too tight.

No such thing..... it's like a girl too pretty, with too much class, being too lucky, a car too fast!

Air exchangers......... I need to get one also, I'm not going to size it to change 1/3 of the house volume per hour though as they tell you to do. This just seems rediculous to me, I don't suffocate now, and one whole change in three hours?? I'm thinking a whole change in 6 hours or 4 a day. I'm thinking of putting the "pulling or exhaust" duct in my boiler room, pull some of that hot air out so it can warm up the fresh air that I'm going to put in the hall by the bedrooms.

TS

 

[Bob Rohr]

Does any one know of a "kit" or a "way" to effectively use our boiler water in a conventional dryer?

Sent from my rooted and eclipse running X2--thanks nitro-- if im posting on here I'm probably supposed to be working! I can't help im addicted to HEARTH.COM!

There are some conversion kits, some hydronic clothes dryers and plenty of DIY examples out there.

 

[infinitymike]

Thats pretty cool Bob. Or should I say thats pretty hot.
Now I have another squirrel to chase. Thanks.

 

[Floydian]

Fred and Taylor,

Have you guys checked out the Panasonic Spot ERV? Not sure if its the best fit for your climate(usually HRVs up your way) but they are slick little units that offer some heat exchange, easy enough to retrofit, thru the wall kit that allows for one 5" hole to the outside for both supply and exhaust, good cfm/watt. Units run a few hundred bucks or so. Certainly not the performance of a whole house system but nowhere near the cost either. I'll soon be installing two units, one centrally located on each level of my folks super insulated, tight, new construction home.

Noah

 

[shmodaddy]

There are some conversion kits, some hydronic clothes dryers and plenty of DIY examples out there.

Wowsers may look into it a bit.

Sent from my rooted and eclipse running X2--thanks nitro-- if im posting on here I'm probably supposed to be working! I can't help im addicted to HEARTH.COM!

 

[maple1]

No such thing..... it's like a girl too pretty, with too much class, being too lucky, a car too fast!

Air exchangers......... I need to get one also, I'm not going to size it to change 1/3 of the house volume per hour though as they tell you to do. This just seems rediculous to me, I don't suffocate now, and one whole change in three hours?? I'm thinking a whole change in 6 hours or 4 a day. I'm thinking of putting the "pulling or exhaust" duct in my boiler room, pull some of that hot air out so it can warm up the fresh air that I'm going to put in the hall by the bedrooms.

TS

I think in an air exhanger/HRV, you want the stale air pulled from your most humid areas (bathroom, maybe kitchen?). That's the way ours is - pulls from there, and fresh air in comes into the bedrooms & living room. Seems to keep the moist (mold prone) air the first air out of the house. Ours is shut off at night - no matter how efficient an HRV might be, it will still not get the incoming cold air any more than half way up to the temp of what's going out. So if it's -10c outside, and +20c inside, the air coming in to the bedrooms will only be +5c (all else being equal and everything balanced out). That's a bit of a cool breeze blowing all night.

 

[Fred61]

During my search for efficient heat exchangers I ran across these guys.

(broken link removed)

Can anybody tell me what they are saying. From what I can see, after running it for a while, I'll need to open the window to let out all the extra heat.
I really can't get my head around the concept.

 

[maple1]

That's interesting. Instead of simple radiator-like heat exchanging, they incorporate a heat pump. So it's like a ductless mini-split, except it's exhausting stale indoor air (& heat-pumping the heat out of it) & bringing in fresh air from outdoors (putting the heat-pumped heat back in it).

Now if they could just hook it to a water heater for the summer use to heat your DHW, you'd have a mini-split heat pump & AC/HRV/water heater, all in one unit. I might be in for that.

 

[Fred61]

But doesn't it use alot of electricity? 700 to 900 watts? Or am I missing something. If I have to burn 900 watts to salvage heat that I made with wood for pennies it would be a loosing proposition. Or am I missing something?

 

[maple1]

Not sure - I see the blower is 75 x 2 watts, don't know what the RLA/LRA of 8 & 36 for the compressor means. Yes, 700/900 watts seems like a bit for air movement/exchange. But I know just enough about electricity to be dangerous.

 

[Floydian]

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/community/forum/mechanicals/16419/combined-hrv-and-mini-split

Here is a little info in heat pump recovery ventilators. In Europe there are units availabe that also provide DHW. This is definitely the direction Passivhaus designers are going in Europe. The "magic box" approach:air source heating/cooling distribution, recovery ventilation, and DHW in one unit. Of course a Passivhaus has a ridiculously low heat load at less that 4.75k btus/sq ft/year.

So, 750 watts to deliver almost 10k btus of heat isn't bad at all, though I am skeptical of the 3.9 COP. But you heat with wood so I still think the panasonic unit for $300 with a fan that draws 23 watts wins the day. Let your nice gassifier+storage system make up the difference of the recovery ventilator.

Thats my opinion,
Noah

 

[BoilerMan]

I'm looking into the Panisonic. I've looked at Venmar, Fantec, and some others..... It drives me nuts, my wife insists on running a humidifier for our baby because the doctor said to do it. Water is running down my triple pane windows in my R38 walls. I told her that we have a little different house than what the doctor is used to, and I monitor RH which is in the 50% range all winter @72F. No desert like conditions here.

TS

 

[WhitePine]

Not sure - I see the blower is 75 x 2 watts, don't know what the RLA/LRA of 8 & 36 for the compressor means. Yes, 700/900 watts seems like a bit for air movement/exchange. But I know just enough about electricity to be dangerous.

RLA is the normal running current draw in amps. LRA is Locked Rotor Amps. That is the current that would be drawn with a frozen compressor motor. Those numbers are required to properly size the wiring and circuit breaker for the unit, although it's usually easier to just to follow the manufacturer's instructions.

We have an conventional ERV, BTW. I not sure the complexities of adding a mini heat pump to the thing would pay off in the long run.

 

[WhitePine]

I'm looking into the Panisonic. I've looked at Venmar, Fantec, and some others..... It drives me nuts, my wife insists on running a humidifier for our baby because the doctor said to do it. Water is running down my triple pane windows in my R38 walls. I told her that we have a little different house than what the doctor is used to, and I monitor RH which is in the 50% range all winter @72F. No desert like conditions here.

TS

That promotes mold growth, which I think has been indicted in the rise in the number of asthmatic kids. You might want to check that out and perhaps show any results to your wife. In any event, mold inside a house is not a good thing.

 

[Fred61]

I recently had a mold issue in a commercial building I own so I spent a fair amount of time online researching the subject in order to provide the tennant with some fairly credible answers. One statement that stood out was "If you have water condensing on your windows, you are growing mold somewhere in your house." Of course, I read it on the internet and everybody knows they can't put anything on the internet if it's not true.

 

[maple1]

I've also read that condensation on windows was a sign that your airsealing is very good and you have good windows - since it's a sign there is no air movement around the windows that would prevent the condensation from forming.

 

[Fred61]

I checked out the Panasonic Spot ERV and it appears that it won't do the job for me since it shuts down the make up air when temperatures reach 20 degrees. In other words it doesn't work when I need it the most. Check out the "Recomended Zones" map on page 7 of the manual.

(broken link removed to http://shop.panasonic.com/resources/consumer_electronics/ventilation_central/pdfs/FV-04VE1-E.pdf)

 

[Floydian]

I thought that might the case, oh well. So it basically becomes an exhaust only fan which would still bring in fresh air IF there were passive air inlets but of course this eliminates any recovery, so why pay for it?

In my house I thinking an exhaust only fan (Panasonic Whispergreen) with passive air inlets. I plan on preheating this incoming air one way or another with my 1000 gal storage tank. No heat recovery, so I'll burn a little more wood. But a low cost approach to ventilating. Probably run the fan on a timer-on for 5 minutes, off for 30 or whatever as needed. We'll see......

Noah