initial followup on a simple prototype
So last week we had a fairly complete run of laundry using the simple heat reclamation/humidity gain prototype.
It wasn't a true full week, because one of our housemates wasn't able to use the laundry during that time, but it was still eight typical loads, which is a reasonable number for a first run.
Temperature:
During these runs, we reclaimed about .8°C per load, on average, outside the laundry. This clearly indicates at least partial distribution to other parts of the house. Temperature sensors on the same floor support this. It's not as distributed as it could be, since the dryer itself is exhausting air, but the positive gain shows that this reclamation produces a neat positive in heat, vs. the net loss caused by the dryer taking air in from the house and expelling it outdoors.
Humidity:
The runs show short-term spikes of 4-5 points of humidity per run at the sensor outside the laundry, which again indicates of which about 2 end up sticky and shared across the building. At no point have we exceeded 60% relative humidity, which is relevant because sustained humidity above that point starts becoming conducive to mould and mildew growth.
(This is why showers have exhaust fans.)
Dust/particulate escape:
None observed, including no atypical buildup of dust. Given that the exhaust vent is a HEPA filter, this is unsurprising, but nice to have confirmed. It does the kind of job you'd want it to in this application, while still allowing for substantial heat and humidity reclamation.
Filter clogging:
One of the several complaints about full indoor venting is the fast rate at which dry filters clog - how quickly depends entirely on the lint content of any set of laundry, but it's a problem no matter what type of loads are being washed. Some reviewers of the most popular indoor dry exhaust filter on Amazon report having to clean the filter in as few as every two or three loads.
Water filters are the more typical solution to this problem, but those require that water be added and/or changed out on a regular basis.
So I was pleasantly surprised in that there was no clogging of the filter, and indeed very little buildup even on the very thin charcoal prefilter. The exceptions were a small number of large particles of lint, clearly aggregated beforehand, probably indicating it's time to clean out the vent pathway in the dryer itself again. This supports my hypothesis that in practical application, providing separate escape for the small fragments which make it past the lint filter does in fact direct most of them that way.
It also demonstrates that even weekly filter cleanings are most likely unnecessary in our case. I will continue to watch the prefilter lint accumulation rate in an attempt to determine how quickly buildup occurs. At this point I have reason to suspect that with our normal loads, a monthly cleanout routine is likely to be adequate, and that at very least, weekly cleanout is entirely unnecessary.
Also posted to ソ-ラ-バ-ド-のおん;
comments at Dreamwidth. Please comment there.
It wasn't a true full week, because one of our housemates wasn't able to use the laundry during that time, but it was still eight typical loads, which is a reasonable number for a first run.
Temperature:
During these runs, we reclaimed about .8°C per load, on average, outside the laundry. This clearly indicates at least partial distribution to other parts of the house. Temperature sensors on the same floor support this. It's not as distributed as it could be, since the dryer itself is exhausting air, but the positive gain shows that this reclamation produces a neat positive in heat, vs. the net loss caused by the dryer taking air in from the house and expelling it outdoors.
Humidity:
The runs show short-term spikes of 4-5 points of humidity per run at the sensor outside the laundry, which again indicates of which about 2 end up sticky and shared across the building. At no point have we exceeded 60% relative humidity, which is relevant because sustained humidity above that point starts becoming conducive to mould and mildew growth.
(This is why showers have exhaust fans.)
Dust/particulate escape:
None observed, including no atypical buildup of dust. Given that the exhaust vent is a HEPA filter, this is unsurprising, but nice to have confirmed. It does the kind of job you'd want it to in this application, while still allowing for substantial heat and humidity reclamation.
Filter clogging:
One of the several complaints about full indoor venting is the fast rate at which dry filters clog - how quickly depends entirely on the lint content of any set of laundry, but it's a problem no matter what type of loads are being washed. Some reviewers of the most popular indoor dry exhaust filter on Amazon report having to clean the filter in as few as every two or three loads.
Water filters are the more typical solution to this problem, but those require that water be added and/or changed out on a regular basis.
So I was pleasantly surprised in that there was no clogging of the filter, and indeed very little buildup even on the very thin charcoal prefilter. The exceptions were a small number of large particles of lint, clearly aggregated beforehand, probably indicating it's time to clean out the vent pathway in the dryer itself again. This supports my hypothesis that in practical application, providing separate escape for the small fragments which make it past the lint filter does in fact direct most of them that way.
It also demonstrates that even weekly filter cleanings are most likely unnecessary in our case. I will continue to watch the prefilter lint accumulation rate in an attempt to determine how quickly buildup occurs. At this point I have reason to suspect that with our normal loads, a monthly cleanout routine is likely to be adequate, and that at very least, weekly cleanout is entirely unnecessary.
Also posted to ソ-ラ-バ-ド-のおん;
comments at Dreamwidth. Please comment there.