On Mar 25, 3:27*pm, BobK207 wrote:
On Mar 25, 12:02 pm, wrote:





I have been looking for something that probably doesn't exist for
reasons I don't know.

I am trying to find out if there is such a thing as a heat exchanger
for a dryer that would attach like a humidifier to a furnace?

I have read MANY posts and articles about just piping the exhaust of
the dryer into the house and how bad that is with lint and moisture.

What I am looking at is something like an air-air exchanger where each
"circuit" is closed.

So the dryer would still exhaust outside but on the way it would flow
through a box that is on the cold air return of a furnace. *The
furnace would suck air through the box and collect some of the heat.

Just curious if anyone has ever seen anything like this, if it is even
feasible, and what issues this would cause?

As a mechanical engineer, I have thought about it for a long time

buying, if available....haven't seen one

OR

*building one...haven't done it for a number of reasons

I live in SoCal so my heating demands are not all that high. *the
temperature differences involved are pretty low so heat transfer won't
be great, the air stream is a little dirty (so maintenance will be an
issue), *air stream contains mositure so condensation, corrosion &
freezing will (can) be issues. The heat ($'s) saved (at least for my
potential installation) won't justify the cost. *My laundry room /
porch is tiny and incorporating a heat exchanger into the system would
be a lot of work.

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Living in ND and having 4 kids I think our dryer is on all the time!
So if this would work I could reclaim a lot of heat.

Yeah I have tried to think of those issues too (plugging and
condensation).
I was thinking of some kind of filter where the exhaust goes in and a
drip pan like thing for condensation. Kind of like an AC coil some
how collects condensation.

One thing that would be nice with my design (if it would work at all)
would be that it would work on a gas dryer too.
I was planning on no mixing of air flows. Like an engine radiator,
the antifreeze is separate from the air.

The amount of surface area needed would probably be immense and would
that slow the exhaust air flow down too much?
Not sure.