A: In the interest of science, and in my ever-present quest to serve the reader, I bought one of those gizmos several years ago also. OK, truth be told, it was because I am numbingly cheap and would walk a mile to save a penny. I hooked it up and ran it as you describe inside my house, not just my garage (garages are almost always ventilated). Intellectually it makes sense, right?: Why waste that energy you dearly pay for?
A terrible stench would be the first reason. The house smelled peculiarly like a mix between an overcrowded Laundromat and a high-school locker room — after the homecoming game during a rainstorm, on a very muggy night in South Georgia. Suffice to say that after a few loads, houseguests would not be feeling particularly welcome.
Second reason: Moisture will soon be dripping from every wall and every window. You do not want to save $10 in energy over a year to inflict several thousand dollars' worth of damage to the finishes in your house. The interior simply cannot dissipate the massive amount of moisture that a dryer will put into the air.
When dryers are not ventilated correctly, heavy damage is inflicted (over the course of several years). It happens in garages, it happens in crawlspaces, and it happens even more quickly in an unvented living space.
In the case of gas dryers, even more moisture, and the byproducts of fossil-fuel combustion are let into the house, adding an immediate health threat to the brewing aroma and sauna-like conditions.
Third reason: The lint trap may get most, but not all, of the now-airborne pieces of your clothing. Those fuzzy cotton tidbits, which are now negatively charged, will be sticking to the walls and every other surface in the house. As you dust those tiny particles of your jeans off the ceiling, think about how much money you are saving, and how you are helping the environment!
Taking this reasoning further, around 20 percent of a typical furnace's output is wasted right up the flue. Why not salvage it? Nobody ever seriously considered that, but the same caveats apply, and the same damage occurs, just faster, when a furnace flue pipe becomes disconnected.
Salvaging wasted heat from shower drains, dryer vents, etc., is the subject of endless Rube Goldberg devices, with few achieving a semblance of economic/maintenance reality, or providing for the long-term health of the building or its occupants.
One notable exception is the newer space-saving washer/dryer combos that aren't even equipped with a vent outlet. These are spendy little units (of European design and manufacture) that condense all the moisture out during the drying cycle and drain it away through the sewer line. The target market for these units is apartments with limited space, or areas that physically cannot accept a vent pipe.
Q: How can I tell which outlets in my new house are switched?
A: By "switched" I presume you are wondering which outlets are operated by a wall switch. These are also affectionately referred to as "half-hots."
Test each outlet in a room with a portable electric device with the wall switch in the off position. Find the outlet that appears to be without power, then turn on the wall switch to see if juice is flowing.
Typically only the top half of a duplex outlet is the switched portion, and the lower part is hot all the time (for clocks and other items you do not want to turn off), but there are exceptions.
One ingenious electrical contractor I am familiar with turns the switched outlet upside down, making it obvious to the homeowner.
Darrell Hay answers readers' questions. Call 206-464-8514 to record your question, |
