Venting Clothes Dryer Into Roof

Venting the dryer outside in cold weather wastes a lot of heat.

Venting clothes dryer into roof.

It is not advisable to vent a dryer through the roof. Doing so would fill your attic with warm moist air that could rot the framing. After the snow melts below the vent it ll probably freeze again farther down on the roof. Air velocity reduction from friction loss promotes lint build up and makes the dryer work harder to completely dry each load.

The international residential code allows you to run a dryer vent through the attic but you can t terminate it there. To make the dyer more efficient you can buy an inexpensive heat diverter and install it in the exhaust duct of electric dryers only not gas dryers you ll save about 50 worth of heat per load in the winter. Every turn increases friction loss unless you use non restrictive elbows. If venting outside isn t an option you can vent the dryer out of the attic through the roof using a special roof vent to keep rain out.

When bath fans and clothes dryers vent through the roof they melt a bunch of snow. This is one of the most common mistakes we see from people who are not experienced with air ducts. Dryer vent specialists will tell you that a vertical approach to installing a dryer vent is inefficient and creates a fire risk for a home if it goes unchecked. Be careful you don t cut through any studs electrical wires or pipes in the process.