As the title implies, my roommates and I are trying to save money by using the expensive electric base board heating as little as possible.
If I get a pantyhose and stick it on the end of the dryer vent to control the dust, can we capitalize on the warm air that would otherwise be sent outside?
Then only negative aspect I can see is the extra humidity released into the air. We are doing this now as a test run and the windows are dripping and the walls are wet. lol.
This is cheap government subsidized housing, so long term problems are of no concern. we will be out by next summer.
I hear car exhaust is pretty warm. Since you have the dryer unhooked from the vent to the outside, you could make use of that vent by placing ducting from your car tail pipe to the vent. This would also prevent heat from escaping from the unused vent.
The tube on my dryer came off last week and not one of my roommates decided it would be necessary to put it back. It wasn’t until I finally noticed it that I put it back on.
In short, don’t do this. You COULD (if you want to get technical) run the vent through a heat exchanger to recopver that heat and then force the room air across the other side of the exchanger and then heat the room that way. It actually wouldn’t be too hard, but most heat exchangers aren’t too cheap. Food for thought.
If it’s an electric dryer, then yeah you could do that without dying. The problem is the mildew and peeling paint you would have within a week.
Not to mention, anyone who’s ever had their dryer vent pop off will tell you that the basement/laundry room gets a really weird and overwhelming musty laundry detergent odor. That’s how I noticed when mine popped off. This will probably give you headaches and I wouldn’t be surprised if it also gives you cancer.
:tup: It’s good to be creative. It’s also good to seek input from other people before doing something… fuck, brain block, what’s the word for “non-standard”… with a house.
It’s a rental property I’m assuming? Granted you have to pay some cash up front, which usually rules out just about everything for a poor college kid, but I bet the windows are old and leaky. $15 bucks for the plastic wrap kits for the windows will go a long way. Plus it’s satisfying to shrink the wrinkly plastic all nice and taught and smooth with a hair dryer, in a popping plastic bubbles sort of way.
