Posted on 02/11/2024 7:08:14 AM PST by karpov
When Jessica Romer pulls clothes out of her new washer-dryer, they feel cool and a bit damp but dry to the touch within seconds.
Using no electric heating element or natural gas, the unit’s dryer employs a pump to draw in ambient heat from its surroundings, making it 50% more energy efficient than traditional models—though without producing that warm, toasty feel.
“It’s different and strange,” said Romer, who lives in northern Florida, “but it does work.”
Whether Romer’s heat-pump dryer represents the pinnacle of energy efficiency or just the latest stop on a long climb is part of a debate in Washington. The Energy Department requires appliance makers to meet efficiency standards that are periodically reviewed and tightened—a rule that sparked the recent tussle over gas stoves.
Manufacturers are pushing for a change.
An industry group says appliances are far more efficient than versions sold a few decades ago, and some can’t improve much more without harming performance. It wants evolving technology to drive the standards, not government timetables.
“The reality of the laws of physics that require some amount of energy and water for home appliances to keep food cold and to clean and dry clothes and dishes has to be recognized,” Kevin Messner, chief policy officer of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, told a congressional hearing last year.
Andrew deLaski of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, which advocates for greater energy efficiency, said government pressure is necessary to keep the breakthroughs coming.
When a new standard goes into effect, manufacturers and their engineering teams have an incentive to develop a higher level of efficiency because there will be a market demand for it, according to deLaski.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
"So if it’s pulling heat from my house, doesn’t my furnace need to work harder?"
Good point.
Hot finished dryer articles likewise help furnace to work less. Correction welcome.
If both electric heat and gas heat are involved, a little more complicated with respect to utility bills.
"It merely moves the heat around, ..."
I'm not a heat pump expert, but I understand that it takes energy to move the heat around.
My heat pump blows only coolish air, too, but the thermostat says the house is holding temperature in the Winter. I think the two are in cahoots!
I have gotten very used to wearing 2 pairs of fleecy pants and a hat in the winter in the house. I can get out of bed (stepping right into slippers) and walk through the house relatively comfortably at night. I do this in mid-Winter to light the kerosene lamps that keep the heat pump from running all night.
My mother used a rope and clothespins in my youth.
I’m not a heat pump expert, but I understand that it takes energy to move the heat around.
The building inspector told me I needed to put 4 inches of foam in the basement walls. I told him I liked the cooling effect in the summer and the heat in the winter.
He scratched his head.
Why don’t these do-gooders just leave sh!t alone?
When we bought our home in July, the prior owners left their washer and dryer. WOW! We were so lucky! They were outrageously expensive according to the Internet. At least that’s what we thought. Ultra high-end, both less than a year old.
Then we realized why. The top load washer had no agitator. It resulted in grungy clothes. The water in the tub didn’t even cover the clothes. You could fill buckets with water and pour it in if you were so silly as to want to wash your clothes with .... water.
BUUT.. it was “energy efficient”! Like we going to sacrifice clean clothes just to say we’re energy efficient. Oh. And it connected to the Internet. WTF?
The dryer also was horrible. But energy efficient.
Luckily, we hadn’t gotten rid of our old Kenmore set, so we brought that in and GAVE away the newfangled set to the handyman.
I am sick of these people.
They might try making a decent washer period...I had to buy a replacement when COVID was on the move - nothing was being made and I settled for the one that could be delivered short of 6 months. It is terrible!! Guess I won’t mention brand name but I walk away after loading it, pushing start only to stop and listen to tell if it is indeed starting.. A lot of noise and several minutes before it gets to wash cycle...I’ve made notes of all the glitches so I can get someone at the home warranty company out to check everything...
The type mom used decades ago still works. A cord between two trees and closepins. Unless it is raining.
“More” -> mower
My 2-year-old hybrid water heater is a total waste of money.
Fair warning.
Yes, of course. That’s why it still takes 50% of the energy. It’s somewhat like your refrigerator, producing both cooling and heating at the same time. The net result is a little more heat because it can’t be perfect.
This cycle could also work using propane, natural gas or kerosene. Old refrigerators used to.
We still have our 32 year old Whirlpool appliances, when they didn’t make junk. Current appliances last about 5 years now. No plans for new ones. Parts are still available.
What brings you to the US?
To seek asylum. The USA is run by lunatics so the asylum should be first rate. I came from halfway around the world mainly by CO2 belching airplane.
Why didn’t you apply for asylum in the country next door?
In the USA you get expensive motel rooms and debit cards.
The type mom used decades ago still works. A cord between two
trees and closepins. Unless it is raining.
*******
And today you can get your pins made from wood, plastic
or metal and of different coloring.
https://www.google.com/search?q=closepins&rlz=1CAXGER_enUS1094&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#ip=1
Hurrrrr-durrrrrrr, uh, no, a market is not guaranteed. EVs have all sorts of subsidies and mandates, and yet the market is still weak, so much so that car makers are starting to turn away from manufacturing them.
Soon we will by out by the riverbeds of polluted water scrubbing our dirty clothes on rocks and drying them on what is left of our trees.
The elites will still have washers, dryers, gas stoves, and the finer things.
When I lived in Maryland, my home had a relatively efficient heat pump, but on really cold nights, it still needed an emergency heat element to get the job done. That failed once, and the temperature in the home dropped into the 60s and then the 50s.
We hang dry our closes in he basement. It takes overnight, but we’re not in any hurry.
Yes, and through the miracle of evaporation and compression, for every watt of electrical energy used, between 4 and 7 watts of heat can be moved. It’s called “factor of efficiency”, and is used in refrigeration calculations all the time.
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