Comparative analysis of drying performances of various types of heat pump tumble dryers at different climate regions

Clothes tumble dryers, including vented electric dryers (VEDs) and closed-loop heat pump dryers (CHDs), are widely used in households because of their convenience. However, VEDs consume excessive amounts of energy, and CHDs require a long drying time; therefore, improvements in both energy efficiency and drying speed are needed. This study proposes a novel vented heat pump tumble dryer (VHD) that combines the advantages of both the VED and CHD to improve the drying performance. The performance improvement and limitations of the VHD compared to those of the VED and CHD are analyzed using a simulation model. The VHD demonstrates an 18.1% reduction in drying time and a 25.3% reduction in overall power consumption compared to the CHD. Furthermore, the VHD shows a substantially higher specific moisture extraction rate than the VED with an optimized control logic, while maintaining a similar drying time. In addition, the VHD exhibits a better drying performance than the CHD in different climates, with up to 31% shorter drying time and 55% higher energy efficiency. The results of this study provide fundamental performance characteristics of various types of heat pump tumble dryers and can be used to optimize VHDs and CHDs. • Numerical models for heat pump dryers with different configurations are developed. • Vented heat pump dryer (VHD) and closed-loop heat pump dryer (CHD) are compared. • Clothes drying performances of VHD and CHD are evaluated under various conditions. • VHD outperforms CHD, reducing drying time by 31% and increasing SMER by 55%.