What is the Shieling Dryer?

At the TES General Meeting last week the Shieling Dryer was plugged.  So what is it and how does it work?

What is the Shieling Dryer?

The Shieling Dryer is a clothes drying tent.  The tent was created over 25 years ago at Shieling Holidays on the Isle of Mull, originally to dry out a wooden lifeboat.  The resultant drying effect was found to be useful for clothes drying.    

There are two models available, a family tent (H 2m, W 2.3m, L 2.5m; 4 washer loads equivalent) and a professional tent (H 2m, W 4m, L 5m; 10 washer loads equivalent). 

How does it work?

It’s very simple.  The tent provides a cover against rain while the passage of air will dry the laundry.  Ironing is saved as the wind reduces creases while the laundry hangs.     

Is it for you?

It’s a considerable investment (£200 inc delivery & support) but if you have the land and the laundry turnover it could save you both energy and money over a tumble dryer.  

The Sheiling Dryer Submitted by alister on 20 February 2010 - 9:02pm.

This looks like a very interesting and useful innovation. It would be interesting to know how many months in the year it can be used.

Energy is required to evaporate the moisture from wet clothes and ventillation is required to provide fresh dry air and to transport the moisture away.

The solution to this problem (and a few others) that we have adopted is the installation of a heat recovery ventillation system into our house. This mechanical ventillation system extracts air from the wet rooms in the house (kitchen, bathroom and shower room) and introduces fresh air into the bedrooms and living room. The heat in the extracted air is recovered in a heat exchanger unit and transferred into the incoming air. Outside of the heating season, in spring, summer and early autumn, the extract side of the ventillation system is left running while the ventillation side is switched off and fresh air is introduced into the house by opening trickle vents in the windows or opening the windows themselves.

In the winter clothes are dried on a conventional clothes drying stand. The energy to evaporate the moisture is provided by the heating in the house and the evaporated moisture is transported out of the house by the ventillation system and the heat is recovered. In spring, summer and early autumn, clothes are dried outside on a conventional line.

This system works very well for a family of five - we don't use a tumble drier. I installed our system a number of years ago myself - it is not difficult. The system can be adapted to take advantage of solar gain in a roofspace to preheat the incoming air. Running costs are very low as the unit only takes a few tens of watts. The other advantages include an improved indoor environment in winter, much less condensation on windows, reduced potential for mould growth and the elimination of lingering smells or odours. In addition the indoor environment produced leads to a dramatic reduction in dust mite viability and therefore the potential for respiratory allergens.

Hi Alister, It was weird Submitted by EdinburghRob on 23 February 2010 - 7:02pm.

Hi Alister,

It was weird hearing Ben talk about the drier at the meeting because I had used the first prototype when I stayed at the inventor's campsite 15 years ago. I hung up a pair of wet jeans overnight in torrential rain and they were bone dry the next morning. It's very unexpected that this should work so well, but I remember my Dad telling me something about how even Eskimos use clothes lines. :-)

Apparently it's the wind that plays a more important part in the design than humidity or heat. I talked to Ben about this and he confirmed that they use their tents all year round and that they do actually work better in winter because of the extra wind they get. The only time they don't work is when the temperature drops below freezing, but I don't think Edinburgh will have this problem much.

I think Edinburgh probably has wind factors in winter that would give the Isle of Mull a run for it's money, but is there any way to measure how windy our back greens are? On the one hand I think they'd be more sheltered, but on the other hand they would get a lot of turbulence. I guess it could be a bit like that that speaker we had at the Energy Fair who pointed out that when considering sites for wave power, it is not overall strength of the current in the area that is the deciding factor, but the strength of the turbulence in a specific spot.

Also does anybody have any statistics about what the carbon savings would be per year, or how much it costs to run a drier? I couldn't see anything related on the energy links page.

--Rob

Heat pump tumble dryer Submitted by alister on 25 February 2010 - 10:01pm.

While risking the criticism of being a bit of a heat pump bore, I should point out that heat pump based tumble dryers are now on the market.

For example, Bosch UK have the EcoLogixx 7 machine (WTW84560GB) that uses less than 2 kWh for a standard programme which is apparently 40% less than a standard A rated appliance (most electric tumble dryers are C rated). The machine costs around £650, I believe.

Other heat pump based machines are also available in the UK. See thisWhich? article for more details.