Prototype Design and Performance Analysis of Solar Clothes Dryer

Abstract

The current state of the laundry industry in Nigeria has created an opportunity to capture a significant market segment that has rejected conventional dryers as expensive, energy consuming and damaging to clothing. Clothes lines and other hang drying methods subject those users to a lack of privacy, extremely long drying times and great dependency on weather. A solar clothes dryer was designed and developed to provide a compromise solution, with faster dry times, low cost and superior energy efficiency. The unit consists of two parts, an inclined flow chamber (solar collector) and the drying box. A performance- analysis was conducted employing a two stage nested design and two way Anova. The two stage nested design had a total number of 24 observations (6 clothe materials x 2solar radiation modes x 2 replications), using six clothing materials as the test material at an average drying chamber temperature of 50 ºC for safe drying of the clothes. The results of the experimental design shows that the number of clothes, solar radiation mode has highly significant (P<0.05) effect on the drying time. The two way Anova design had a total number of 12 observations (6 clothe materials x moisture remove {%}). The test reveals that the number of clothes, percentage of moisture removed has highly significant (P<0.05) effect on the drying time. Graphical analyses of residuals reveal adequacy of models employed. The normality assumption check conducted on the models revealed nonconstant variance defect which validated the conclusions of the two-staged nested design and two way Anova. The normal probability plots and the standardized residual plots also gave no indication of outliers, which shows that experimental designs took into consideration proper randomization of the experimental runs. The main advantage of this dryer is that it can work all round the year, Asian Review of Mechanical Engineering ISSN 2249 – 6289 Vol. 2 No. 1, 2013, pp.35-43 © The Research Publication, www.trp.org.in with a built-in auxiliary heating system. it consumes less power than conventional dryers in washing machines(800.64kJ). It can easily be built with commonly available materials.