FYI: Dryer Vent

[flcruising]

This is my first post here, and I wasn't sure where to put it.

We moved into our new Platinum home (which we love) last December, and I've been doing energy upgrades to it ever since. One in particular is the clothes dryer.
Here's something you can do relatively easy to keep your energy bill down, and it only cost's a few dollars. Since the dryer vents to outside (ours is under the house), but draws it's air from indoors, it creates negative pressure inside the house. The blower inside the average dryer moves about 150cfm of air, this equates to 9000cfm of air being drawn out of your house every hour. In our house (1620 ft2) that's a total indoor air exchange every hour and twenty-four minutes. I think that's huge!
So what do you do about it? Easy, you cut another hole to the outside and hook up another vent pipe to the dryer.
For me that simply meant to take off the rear intake louver, hammer it flat, cut a hole in it, insert a 4" start collar, seal it up with aluminum roll roofing and foil tape, and seal the lid and front with low density foam gasket tape. Now you've got a dryer that's supplied with fresh outside air! Just be sure to cover the intake with screen material of some sort to avoid sucking in bugs.

After this, our dryer actually performs better than before, even in the winter when the air is denser therefore has a better flow rate.

I think is spent about $10 total on parts.