Abstract
The energy associated with clothes drying makes up 4% of the total residential electrical energy consumption in the US. The cost is high since most clothes dryers use electric resistance heating which is inexpensive but also energy inefficient. State-of-the-art vapor-compression heat pump clothes dryers offer significant energy savings but have limited market penetration in the US. In this work, a new configuration of clothes dryer was studied that utilizes a solid-state thermoelectric heat pump with pumped secondary water loops and conventional fin-and-tube water-to-air heat exchangers. Experimental results are presented for the thermoelectric dryer prototype with a combined energy factor of 6.89 lbBDW/kWh (specific moisture extraction rate of 1.71 kgw/kWh) and a dry time of 84 min for a standard load size of 8.45 lb (3.83 kg) with 57.5% starting moisture content. This is a 85% energy efficiency improvement over baseline electric resistance dryers. The efficiency and drying time results achieved are similar to vapor compression heat pump dryers. Compared to previous air-based thermoelectric clothes dryers, the energy efficiency has been increased by 6%, but drying time has been reduced by as much as 47% using secondary pumped loops and separate heat exchangers, which represents a significant advancement in the technology. In addition to the experimental prototype, a model was also developed to study the performance. The model was validated against experimental prototype data and used to identify the range of performance (dry time and efficiency) that could be expected of the design.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 116345 |
| Journal | Applied Thermal Engineering |
| Volume | 184 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 5 2021 |
Funding
This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Building Technologies Office (BTO) under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC and used resources at the Building Technologies and Research Integration Center, a DOE-EERE User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The authors would also like to acknowledge Mr. Antonio Bouza, Technology Manager – HVAC&R, Water Heating, and Appliances, DOE-BTO. This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Building Technologies Office (BTO) under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC and used resources at the Building Technologies and Research Integration Center, a DOE-EERE User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The authors would also like to acknowledge Mr. Antonio Bouza, Technology Manager ? HVAC&R, Water Heating, and Appliances, DOE-BTO. The authors would also like to acknowledge ORNL technician Anthony Gehl for providing assistance in prototype fabrication and assembly, data acquisition and electrical system design and fabrication. Finally, the authors would also like to acknowledge Dr. Guolian Wu of Samsung Electronics America for his valuable input on the research. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DOE-BTO | |
| DOE-EERE | |
| Samsung Electronics America | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Building Technologies Office | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
