Venting dryer into laundry room

[RedheadErin]

I am thinking of venting the dryer into the basement laundry room and using the salvaged heat to dry sweaters on a rack. My husband says this will create a lot of carbon monoxide and is a bad idea. If I remember my chemistry correctly, the CO and everything else burned to make heat should ultimately get converted to CO2 and water vapor, which would then be vented outside.

Come to think of it, wouldnt all that water vapor just get my sweaters wet? Is this a bad idea or not?

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

I would think it would depend on if it is a gas dryer or electric. Even then, you can google for all the info. I don't use my dryer myself, but if I did, I would vent it inside. Mine is electric though.

 

[~gd]

Venting a electric dryer inside is going to dump most of the moisture near the vent. this can be good if your inside air is dry or a disaster if you are already too moist.

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

There is some sort of special vent for that purpose. I just haven't looked in to it for a while.

 

[moolie]

Venting a electric dryer inside is going to dump most of the moisture near the vent. this can be good if your inside air is dry or a disaster if you are already too moist.

Total ditto, not very efficient use of the dryer (venting all that hot moisture into the laundry room causes the dryer to take longer to dry since it has no dry air to intake) and only useful for heating if you live in an extremely arid climate and need the humidity in your house.

 

[Beekissed]

Or if you heat with wood in other areas of the house and the dry air reaches your laundry room but the heat doesn't. Maybe if you vented that dryer into a larger space than directly behind your dryer?

A dryer only runs 20-30 min. per usual cycle...say a person does 2 loads per day back to back, that would vent an hour's worth of warm moist air into rooms that just may need it...and also allow one to close off the outside access to those rooms from the usual dryer venting which allows cold air to flow into your dryer unit and consequently into your laundry room.

Placing an old panty hose legging across the vent hose may keep the lint fragments and some of the moisture from entering into the room being vented, but I'd sure clean that each time I used the dryer.

 

[beerman]

I have been venting mine inside for years, no problems at all. It is a shame to waste heat you pay for.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree. Watching that warm air billow out into the cold air in a cloud of steam seems a huge waste of energy and warmth.

 

[Theo]

What about venting it outside, into a greenhouse? I've thought about doing this, but I don't have a greenhouse or cold frame just now. Also I wouldn't want to trap moisture right next to the house where it might destroy the siding, so I'd have to improvise an extended vent. An occasional puff of warm moist air might be just what plants need.

 

[Denim Deb]

I had mine venting into my laundry room because of a hole in the vent. The only thing I found that it allowed was for a mouse to get in the house. :/