I just had the appliance guy at the local borg tell me that a gas dryer is not as efficient as electric due to our mile high altitude here.
I know. Most of these guys at the borg are hardly what I'd consider experts in their field.
It's the first I'd heard of that.
Any merit to this?
NO.... wonder how much his bonus is to move X number of electric dryers?
I think he is crazy. Maybe he makes more off electric models.
BTW Gas is ever as "efficient" as electric. Gas is always something less than 100% and electric is always 100%. If course in most places the cost per BTU is much cheaper for gas. Ask the local gas company for cost comparison.
Sold them for over 25 years. Gas will dry faster, partly because the air is made super dry by passing through the flame as it is heated thus working better at removing moisture when it reaches the clothes. Gas dryers cost $50 more than an electric dryer but the standard used to be that you recovered that within 6 months in that gas was cheaper to run. I don't know about now that gas has become so expensive. I suspect the salesman was confusing gas dryers with gas ranges. I suspect that gas might not be so effective in bringing a pot to boil at higher altitudes. But then electric ranges would need to be hotter, also to do that.
Tom G.
Gas will be cheaper for you to run, that is all that matters.
Perhaps Joseph intended to say "never" instead of "ever." With gas appliances the combustion gases must be exhausted, and some of the heat goes with it. With both gas and electric dryers, some of the heat is lost in the moist exhaust, so the decreased efficiency with gas isn't as big an issue as it is with other appliances.
Every time I make this calculation, the gas beats the electric. We have had recent price hikes in both gas and electric. If you can easily install the gas dryer, that would be the better of the two. With a scientific background, I can't see how altitude can make any difference (but I'd be curious to read the reason!). I have found that gas dryers cost more initially, but will save money in the long run.
It would seem to me that whatever moisture is in the air entering the dryer, it is still going to be there as it passes through, whether the heat source is a flame or electric. Sure the moisture in the air immeadiately surrounding the flame will be less, but that water is just shifted to the rest of the air as it moves through the dryer. It can't disappear because there is no place for it to go. Plus you have the fact that one of the by-products of combustion of natural gas is water, which is one reason pro chefs prefer electric ovens. If gas dryers do dry cloths faster, then it must be because they have a higher BTU output.
Gas dryers cost
Well cars have to be readjusted to run at high altitudes**, but cars are more complicated than mere fires. And I think gas dryers have adjustments also, since stoves, furnaces, water heaters, and gas grills do. As long as the fire in the dryer is burning right, I don't see how it could be less efficient***
**Maybe that's just the idle. In the old days, cars had to be adjusted manually, and now the computer has to have sensors and code to accomplish the same thing. ***Except for what Bob said, but electicity generation also has loses heat, at the power generation station. So they bill you after the heat has been wasted, but iiuc, gas is still cheaper.
Yea, I just got to find a spell check that knows what I mean not what I type. :-)
Thanks for all the responses. The gas line is in place just as I'd planned.
Confirms my thought on two counts.
Gas dryer it will be. Be wary of advice by the experts at home depot.
Snip
Hey! An oxymoron...
Al
Every time I make this calculation, the gas beats the electric. We have had recent price hikes in both gas and electric. If you can easily install the gas dryer, that would be the better of the two. With a scientific background, I can't see how altitude can make any difference (but I'd be curious to read the reason!). I have found that gas dryers cost more initially, but will save money in the long run.
At high altitudes, the air is thinner, so you are more likely to have problems with incomplete combustion. You have to lower the gas pressure or change the orifice size to reduce the gas input. A gas dryer will dry slower at high altitude because the heat input is lower. That does not make it less efficient, just slower. Being slower with a lower heat input, it will use less gas per hour than at sea level. The total amount of gas used to dry a load of clothes should be about the same. As was pointed out, burning gas in air produces water vapor, so the air leaving the flame is wetter, but because the temperature is higher, the RELATIVE HUMIDITY is lower, even though there is more moisture in the air. That is because air at high temperatures can hold more moisture than air at low temperatures.
Stretch
I'd think that a dryer at high altitude would be *more* efficient than one at sea level because the boiling point of water is lower, requiring *less* heat for the same amount of water. ...the same reason eggs take longer to boil (less heat in the water before it boils).
Keith, you are correct for an electric dryer. The heat output will be the same at any altitude. Yes the water in the clothes will evaporate easier. But a gas burner will give off less heat because there is less air to combine with the gas in the combustion process, hence the dryer heat output is less. Of course the lower heat required would offset that effect some. You might want to do some experimenting. But you would have to use the same dryer at 2 different altitudes....... Maybejust ask the manufacturer.
Stretch
i forgot the original question, but here in indiana, NIPSCO charges $1.70+ per therm for gas... while AEP wants .07/KWH... i've done the BTU math and electric at *that* rate is at least 50% cheaper, and i can vent my electric dryer into the basement without CO problems... today i heat the house with electric, haven't turned our gas boiler on for 3 years... there is no contest here... live electrically!
js
Stretch wrote: : Keith, you are correct for an electric dryer. The heat output will be : the same at any altitude. Yes the water in the clothes will evaporate : easier. But a gas burner will give off less heat because there is less : air to combine with the gas in the combustion process, hence the dryer : heat output is less. Of course the lower heat required would offset : that effect some. You might want to do some experimenting. But you : would have to use the same dryer at 2 different altitudes....... : Maybejust ask the manufacturer.
: Stretch
But, if you're starving the flame of oxygen you're producing all sorts of nasties. ...not good! If you adjust the fuel/air mixture to bring the nasties back in line (all the gas burned) then you're back to being more efficient at high altitude. It may take longer to dry if a smaller orifice is required, but will still be more efficient.
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