Timed on/off MCB for control of tumble dryer

[assendon]

I am trying to recreate a system I had in a house in Sweden to improve the efficiency of a tumble dryer.
The dryer was connected directly to an outlet which was itself controlled by an individual MCB in the consumer unit. The MCB timed both on and off for the supply so that the tumble dryer ran for approx 1.5 minutes and then was off for about 4 minutes, on again for 1.5 minutes etc, etc. The idea is that during the on period the dryer expels saturated air in the chamber and inputs a small amount of heat, then shuts off. During the off phase the chamber air becomes saturated again and is expelled by the next on-time, etc,etc. We found this useful as we could dry clothes while out at work with just a half hour of drying time and the clothes were exposed to much less heat stress.
My problem is that I cannot identify what sort of MCB was used and wholesalers I have visited look at me blankly as though this sort of thing does not exist.

Can anyone help with a recommendation?

Many thanks

 

[electronicsuk]

I doubt that this system is really any more efficient than a modern tumble dryer, otherwise it would have already been implemented at design stage my the many manufacturers of these appliances. They probably already do cycle the heating element, but continue to rotate the drum, giving the impression that the unit is running on full power when it may well not be.

What's more, to do what you want would require an old or very basic dryer, as most I've seen recently have digital controls and integrated delay timer. They don't start up as soon as power is applied, instead requiring user intervention such as pressing a start button.

Oh, and the blank look is not surprising. An MCB will not have any kind of integrated timer, although you may be able to find something that mounts in a consumer unit on DIN rail that looks similar to an MCB. Where you will find this and how effective it will really be is another question.

 

[mfarrow]

Merlin Gerin seem to do something but I'm not sure what the setting characteristics are, so you might need to ring them up and ask.

As electronicuk rightly points out though, this is not an MCB and will have to be in-line with one on the DIN rail in your board (if there's room).

http://www.electrika.com/products/m/man-1173/pdftech/schneider-rti-se6472-05.pdf

Pages 40 and 41 of the link, item RTL 16069.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I doubt that this system is really any more efficient than a modern tumble dryer, otherwise it would have already been implemented at design stage my the many manufacturers of these appliances. They probably already do cycle the heating element, but continue to rotate the drum, giving the impression that the unit is running on full power when it may well not be.

It has and they do.

Mine, for example, allows you to tell it what type of contents you have, what temperature you want to dry at and how dry you want the items to end up (e.g. you might want to leave them slightly damp for easier ironing).

It does all that by monitoring the humidity of the air inside, and when done it does continue to rotate the drum intermittently to avoid creasing.

And yes, it has a retractive start button.