Should you vent your dryer inside your home?

With this winter forecast predicting a benchmark in heating bills, you may be tempted to heat your home with what might appear to be harmless ready heat…the exhaust from your clothes dryer. After all, it’s just heated air and you don’t want to lose it to the outside. What could be the problem? Unfortunately, there are problems.

Just to review, it really isn’t a good idea to vent your dryer to inside your home. Here’s why.

First, the air coming out of your dryer is mega humid. This humidity can cause condensed moisture to form on your windows and other surfaces…a perfect recipe for mildew. We had painted a room during the winter and in our ignorance, the next week vented the dryer inside. Yikes! The walls turned green and we had to repaint. Just so unpleasant. Aside from the visual, the mold can also be a health hazard.

Then there is the lint issue. With all that lint from your drying clothes being blown into your home, there is always the danger of a spark igniting the dust. This is a very real fire hazard. Even if you vent into your attic these dangers still exist.

In fact while we are talking vents, make sure your builder didn’t cut corners and just vent to the attic. The vent hose should be insulated so the heated air doesn’t cause the moist air in your attic to condense on the pipe and drip down onto attic insulation, ceilings, etc. There is the potential of hidden mold and mildew and potentially dangerous bacteria to run rampant.

So although it sounds like an energy saving idea to vent your dryer inside, don’t do it. The potential dangers outweigh the savings you might experience.