What Were They Thinking? Click here to read more articles about
Walls This article originally appeared in the March/April 2009
issue of Home Energy Magazine. March 09, 2009 While conducting
an informal energy audit, I saw this installation in the
basement of a home occupied by several young adults in
Kalamazoo, Michigan. They needed a clothes dryer, so they
installed one. They didn't realize that it was hot, humid air
that comes out of a dryer, and not water. This situation has
been in place for at least a year, and one of the occupants has
indicated that at times there is moisture and slime on the
basement walls. There was no water in the bucket to act as a
trap. All that was being collected in the bucket was lint. The
cold winters in Michigan, resulting in cold basement walls, no
doubt cause the water to condense on the walls near the dryer.
There are between eight and ten people living here. That
probably means the dryer is frequently used. While helping this
group to get the dryer exhaust hooked up, I not