Anyone hear of a 120V clothes dryer? (2023 Update)

I almost said the same, but raising air temp does reduce RH. It doesn't however remove any water.

most are

which are mostly heat pumps

it's raised by the electricity consumed

why would anyone need faster than 90 minute dry times? 24hour drying works fine here.

Yes to all of those. Please stop assuming I don't know what I'm doing.

fridges? A typical English fridge eats 60w max, only runs a small percentage of the time. Even a big 100W thing isn't going to have much effect on the bills.

A US refrigerator will typically consume a few thousand KWHr annually, if "vintage". I.e., MWHrs. Newer units will cut that considerably (to maybe 400KWHr/annually)

*Freezers* draw a fair bit more. Esp as a freezer is often not located in as benign an environment as the refrigerator. It seems pretty common (among the folks that I know) to have multiple refrigerators AND a "deep freeze".

that wouldn't fly here, a professional kitchen is required to wash everything at +90'C

there's condensing dryer that just condense out the water so you don't need a vent, and then there's heatpump dryers that do pretty much the same but keeps recycling that dry air

Not really. An appliance like a dryer is considered a "continuous" load and the capacity of the supplying circuit is derated to 80%, so a 15 amp circuit can only be used to 12 amps for something like a dryer or space heater. That's why hair dryers and space heaters are always 1440 watts and not 1800 watts (15 amps times 120 volts).

Did you miss the derating issue? It's NEMA which is non-binding, but my understanding is all the states have adopted this rule.

In Puerto Rico the houses are solid concrete with wiring run in conduit in the walls. I looked at a panel and they were all 20 amp breakers even though the outlets are only 15 amp. So the wires must be sized for 20 amp circuits. They commonly have window type AC units and I expect they add a 20 amp outlet to plug them in. The units seem to always be in the wall rather than windows because they have jalousie style windows.

In the US where I have lived the 120 volt outlets are all 15 amp unless intended for something special (with 15 amp wiring and breakers).

By "divert" you mean rip apart the plumbing? Let us know when you've made the measurement.

When they have the force of law, yes.

They usually (not always for sure) follow code, but they learned their trade from other union members. I guess someone in the union reads the codes.

I've also never met an electrician who really understands electricity.

It's not possible for you have high humidity then. Unless you're not saying you have an indoor swimming pool, or tropical greenhouse???

that's so extremely inefficient that I find it had to believe. Is the US awash with uninsulated fridges?

We have multiple fridges and freezers, the whole lot don't eat as much as you say one does.

Not here. My mom and gram spent far more time on housework than we do.

Remember washboards and wringers? Washing dishes by hand? Feeding and plucking the chickens? Washing the floor on hands and knees? Chopping wood? Starting fires? Hand beating whipped cream? Iceboxes cooled with real blocks of ice?

Remember when there was no Amazon?

I kinda like it.

You're welcome to come argue with my house about it.

Standards change, over time. I've been in (old) homes that had NO insulation in the walls! When heating products were dirt cheap, it was easier to just heat a "leaky" house than build it better (and, the insulation products weren't as viable)

Our frigs are probably larger than yours. 20 cu ft is probably a nominal size.

What typically happens is someone decides they want to upgrade their kitchen (because "white" is out-of-style or, whatever). But the old appliances still work!

There's rare need for a "spare stove". Or dishwasher.

But, a spare refrigerator is almost always seen as having potential use!

Keeping it in the kitchen is unlikely -- not enough space AND the whole point of the upgrade was to "get rid of the white appliances" (e.g.).

So, the frig ends up in the garage, basement, etc. It's continued presence is rationalized as it now allows you to purchase more items in bulk than you could, previously. What value being able to fetch something out of "another room" vs. having to drive miles to the nearest supermarket?

It's still *running* 24/7/365. It's still as energy inefficient (possibly slightly more efficient as the door might not be opened/closed as often as it had previously). It may be sorely underutilized (because its a hassle to have to go down to the basement -- or out to the garage -- to fetch items from it) and, thus, less effective at maintaining temperature (less internal thermal mass).

So, even if the new frig is super efficient, your NET efficiency has fallen because you've not shed the *old* beast!

A good fridge/freezer combination in with a good energy rating uses 110-130 kWh/year here, mine uses about twice that (230 kWh/year) as I had other critera to select this one.

How large is it? And, where is it located?

(BTW, I am talking about a *freezer*, not a refrigerator with ice box;

20 cu ft of below 0F storage)

A "recent" nominal (20 cu ft) refrigerator (with ice box) will be in the

350-400KWHr range, annually.

There are many that know how to run the wires in a house and probably will meet the code without any trouble, but don't understand the electricity if there is any problem.

At work we had a building project and a contractor came in and instlled a 3 phase 480 volt heater. Simple temperature controller on it. When they turned it on it did not work. They did some more work on it but it still would not heat. I and another electrician that worked at the plant walked by and they said something to us about helping. We told them they had a blown fuse or two. The installer said the fuses checked good. We told them to put in new fuses and see what hapens . They did and the heater worked fine. They had checked the fuses wrong.

House wiring is very simple, but seems even that can be difficult for many to understand. I do not know much about the electrical code and would have to ask for all the fine points about it,but I could repair anything that could go wrong with the circuits in a house.

I'm not clear how solar got into the matter. The issue is simply using heat pumps and other fancy means for drying clothes.