Energy Efficient Clothes Dryer--Final Report

Technical Report · Tue May 30 04:00:00 EDT 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1371483· OSTI ID:1371483

Gluesenkamp, Kyle R. ^[1]; Shen, Bo ^[1]; Boudreaux, Philip ^[1]

---

1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

In the United States, the majority of clothes dryers use electric resistance heaters with a capacity of approximately 4 kW for clothes drying. US dryers typically use a tumble-type drum with a blower to push air and dry clothes. Most existing electric products are electric resistance with once-through airflow, with some condensing dryers using closed-loop airflow. Starting in late 2014, vapor-compression (VC) heat pump dryers have been available. Although they are extensively used in Australia and Europe, they have very low market penetration in the United States. Currently a few heat pump clothes dryers (HPCD) using R134a are available on the market from LG, Whirlpool, and Asko, but they have very high retail prices and relatively long dry times. Two are closed loop, and one uses open-loop airflow. Table 1 provides a summary of the combined energy factor (CEF), drying time, and range of retail prices for existing conventional dryers and existing HPCD products, along with CEF and drying time for HPCD prototypes developed during this project. The major market barriers are seen as the high cost and longer dry times (Denkenberger et al. 2013).

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1371483
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM--2017/250; CRADA/NFE-12-04273
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING