Design and Development ofClothes Drying Closet Using Solar Energy

Nowadays, a lot of home appliances use electricity as the source of energy to
operate. As we know it, the common cloth dryers consume a lot of electricity to provide
heat during drying process. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to design and develop
a cloth drying closet using solar energy as a source of heat. This project covers the study
ofan air solar collector and the distribution ofthe heat induced from the solar energy into
a closet where the heat is used to dry wet clothes. The project was initiated with the
problem identification and study of the solar energy applications at home. From the
problem identification, some related quantification sorted out to determine the
requirements for the design. The design stage comprise of many items such as the air
solar collector, ducts, closet, system configuration, and energy analysis. The design ofthe
solar collector is important since it produces the heat that wouldbe continuously fed into
the drying closet. The calculation part covers the amount of heat produce by the solar
collector, heat loss in the ducts and the time taken for the clothes to be completely dry.
Then the project proceeds to the detail design work that result in the device drawings
from CATIA or AutoCAD. As a result, all the main components in this project have been
identified and the engineering design specifications are provided in this report. The
fabrication work and the assembly of the prototype are done during the second part of
this project. The finalization of the project will involved the testing and analysis of the
prototype. The solar drying closet system consists of the air solar collector, flexible duct,
exhaust fan and a closet. It can be integrated with the available closet at home but need
certain modification.