The energy efficient heat pump clothes dryer is finally ready for its closeup.
The building electrification movement is great news for fans of the heat pump. Despite the emphasis on heat, a heat pump is an energy efficient appliance that can do much more than warm up a building. Energy efficient heat pumps can also deliver AC, and now it turns out they can run clothes dryers, which is a big deal because laundry is one of the leading energy-sucking features of the modern household.
A Heat Pump Clothes Dryer For The US: What Took You So Long?
Cutting natural gas out of the laundry room is one big win for heat pump clothes dryers. The other win is cutting down on the electricity needed to run electric dryers.
However, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Making the economic case for heat pump clothes dryers is no simple chore.
Heat pump clothes dryers are new on the US scene, but they have been marketed in Japan and Europe since the 1990s. In 2010, the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory took a close look at the energy efficiency angle and observed that heat pump clothes dryers “can be as much as 50% more energy-efficient than conventional electric resistance clothes dryers” in the US, the question being whether or not that improvement would make sense on a lifecycle cost basis.
To read the full article: https://cleantechnica.com/2022/04/04/suddenly-heat-pump-clothes-dryers-are-having-a-moment/amp/