Is your dryer making your electric co happy?

In today's economy can any of us afford to throw money away? It's a simple fact, a dryer vent that is not clean can cost you up to $500 more every year. In Central Fl, the average cost to run a dryer is $0.52 a load. That does seem to be a miniscule figure, but the average household washes 7.5 loads a week. We know that many households wash many more loads, but this is an average. This brings your weekly dryer use to about $3.90. Again it seems to small to worry about doesn't it? Now take that figure and multiply it by 52 weeks. Now we're up to $202.80, and suddenly we can see a sizable cost amount. These figures are for a dryer that is vented by code (no more than 25'), and is in perfect working order. Now let's add a bit of lint buildup to the equation. One year later this same dryer is costing around $280 to operate. The next year about $360. And it just gets worse and worse. We actually have a client that immediately noticed a savings of $20+ a month after we cleaned her vent. Granted she has 4 children and a pool and was washing about 15 loads a week, but the math is solid and no one can afford to just throw money away.

 A dryers biggest enemy in operation, is it's ability to get rid of the hot/wet air. Let's try an experiment. Take a very small piece of lint from around your dryer, and set it on a smooth surface. If you blow on it the least bit, you will send it flying. But, if you place that same amount of lint on a rug and blow on it, it goes nowhere! This is the same scenario that is provided by your dryer vent. When it's brand new it works perfectly. But over time as the lint builds, it becomes harder and harder for your dryer to get the air out of your house.

Now let's talk about how your dryer is vented. You saw earlier that the code for dryer vent length is 25'. Here's the technical version.

2003 IMC - International Mechanical Code (section 504) and 2003 IRC - International Residential Code (section 1501): In brief, the maximum length of duct permitted is 25 feet.  This maximum length should be reduced by 2.5 feet for each 45° bend and 5 ft. for each 90° bend.

For single story houses that vent through the roof, this is not a problem. But houses that have the dryer vent run under the slab and terminate on the outside of the house, this is a serious issue. These setups have a minimum of 3 - 90° elbows. So without anything else, you are already at 65% of your maximum allowed distance. Two and three story houses obviously have length issues just because of the additional floors.

Now here's one other tidbit that most people never take into consideration. When you are drying clothes, what is the temperature like inside your laundry room? It's obviously warmer than the rest of the house but why is that? A new dryer with proper dryer venting, should dry your clothes without raising the temperature of the room. If your dryer vent is clogged the dryer will A: work harder, B: work longer, and C: raise the temperature of it's surrounding area. And here in Fl, who wants their a/c to do anything more than necessary?

For the savings alone, it's a simple answer.

Call us now to schedule an appointment!

(877) 302-5468

We service Hillsborough and Polk Counties, including: Tampa, Brandon, FishHawk, Riverview, Seffner, Valrico, Dover, Plant City, Lakeland, Bartow, Winter Haven, Kissimmee, and many others.