Wood boilers and clothes dryer? what do you know

[GF#2]

I joined arborist site a few weeks ago looking for info on this very subject. I have heated my house and hot water with a home made owb for about 15 years and heating the cloths dryer with it has been on my mind for a while. When i built my owb i had never seen or heard of them before (i thought i had come up with the next big thing. lol) so nothing was really done to be permanent because i wasn't sure how well it would work. So 15 years later i am in the final stages of a major overhaul and heating the cloths dry is something i have added. Basically i have ducted the air inlet for the dryer the same way the outlet is ducted. The air inlet duct runs up to an 8"x8" heat exchanger mounted to the wall above the dryer. And with some rewiring and changes to the controls i will be able to select the heat source. Either electric or the owb. I'm still a couple of week out from being able to test it my main focus right now is getting the heat back online as the owb is my only source and winter appears to be coming on fast.

 

[Bill G]

Digging up an old thread to see how successful folks have been

 

[GF#2]

I was unable to make it work effectively with the electric heating elements still in the dryer. So i can not select between electric and owb to dry clothes as I mentioned i was trying to do in my last post. However we have been drying clothes without the electric heating elements solely on the owb for two years. It takes about twice as long to dry a load as it did with the electric but it works. I have four small children so my wife washes and dries at least two loads a day. When i put the dryer on the owb the power bill went down about $25 a month.

 

[Del_]

We have a semi heated porch and hang cloths to dry all year. Some things are dried hanging near the wood stove if needed soon. Boots near the stove. Hardly ever use the dryer, summer or winter. Just don't need it.

 

[Bill G]

I was unable to make it work effectively with the electric heating elements still in the dryer. So i can not select between electric and owb to dry clothes as I mentioned i was trying to do in my last post. However we have been drying clothes without the electric heating elements solely on the owb for two years. It takes about twice as long to dry a load as it did with the electric but it works. I have four small children so my wife washes and dries at least two loads a day. When i put the dryer on the owb the power bill went down about $25 a month.

Wait until those 4 small children become 4 big children. Two loads a day ha As for using it in the summer how hot does the room get

 

[GF#2]

There is no change in the room temp it stays the same temp as the rest of the house. It works the same as it did on electric it just pulls air through a water to air heat exchanger instead of the electric heating elements then vents to the outside.