A Study on Residential Clothes Drying Using Waste Heat Rejected from a Split-Type Room Air Conditioner (RAC)

This article reports on a study of developing a novel residential clothes dryer using waste heat rejected from a room air conditioner. An experimental rig has been set up and extensive experimental work under various operating conditions carried out. A simplified mathematical expression (SME) for the clothes drying process using rejected waste heat from a RAC has also been developed and validated by the experimental results. The study results showed that in tropical or sub-tropical regions, where air conditioning is operated for at least 7-8 months in a year, the use of waster heat from an air cooled RAC can achieve both effective clothes drying and energy use reduction.