How to Heat Your House With an Electric Clothes Dryer

Often the electric dryer vent is routed to the outside of the house, where the heat is lost.

An electric clothes dryer uses quite a bit of energy. This energy creates heat, which is forced through your wet clothes, drying them, and is then vented to the outside, where the heat generously warms the great outdoors. All at your expense. Wouldn't it be nice if most of that heat could be redirected back into your home, keeping your home toasty warm instead of your backyard? The answer, if you have an electric clothes dryer, is a simple and inexpensive heat recycler.

Things You'll Need

• Heat recycler
• Screwdriver
• Dryer vent tubing
• Pliers
• Knife

Instructions

1. Mount a heat recycler (available at most hardware stores, home-improvement centers and appliance stores) to the wall behind and just above your electric clothes dryer. Make certain that the "out" vent of the heat recycler can be vented to the current outside vent.

2. Connect a piece of dryer venting tubing to the "out" vent hole on the recycler and then to the current exterior vent that the dryer has been using. If possible, purchase a heat recycler that comes with venting clamps that allow for the positive connection of the venting tubing.

3. Clamp the vent tubing from the back of your dryer to the "in" vent hole on the recycler. Again, use the venting clamp on the recycler to make a solid attachment. You now have the dryer attached to the "in" vent hole of the recycler and another piece of vent tubing from the "out" vent hole of the recycler to the exterior vent.

4. Set the flapper control on the recycler to vent the hot air back into the home (generally in the winter) or to direct the hot air through the "out" vent and to the outside (when extra heat is not needed in the house).

Tips & Warnings

• There is a lint screen built into the heat recycler. This screen does not have to be cleaned as often as the screen on your dryer, but it should be checked and cleaned approximately every three months, unless the manufacturer recommends otherwise.

• Do not use a heat recycler with a gas dryer as the fumes could be toxic.

References

• MG Services: Save Energy-Recycle the Dryer Heat
• ISnare: Don't Waste Dryer Heat