represents a significant reduction in the energy requirements of laundry machines as laundry machines discharge a great amount of unused energy into the environment which particularly in light of rising energy prices represents an unnecessary operational cost for a laundry application_number US 73664307 A description the method illustrated here is employed to recover energy discharged by laundry machines in particular heat energy in such a manner that at least one portion of the energy can be reutilized in the operation of preferably laundry machines the recovery of energy can be applied to all laundry machines used in commercial laundries which discharge unspent energy the drawing shows schematic representations of a washing machine namely a tunnel washing machine 10 a dryer 11 a finisher 12 and a mangle 13 in these laundry machines u2014 to which however the invention is not limited u2014 a particularly large amount of heat energy accumulates which is normally vented outside without being utilized the energy discharged by the laundry machines takes the form of moist air or gland steam the gland steam still possesses a relatively high temperature that can be greater than 100 c the object of the invention is therefore to recover at least part of the energy still contained in the gland steam so that it does not have to be released outdoors without being utilized the figure shows gland steam lines 14 by means of which gland steam accumulating at the tunnel washing machine 10 the dryer 11 the finisher 12 and the mangle 13 can be conducted through.