I wrote:
>
> With over 500 "small ions"per cubic centimeter, plus the larger ions in air a few cfm would
> represent a lot of charge in the air going through the dryer.
> Seems that a clothes dryer pulls charge from the air going through it, the water (especially
> well water) and the clothing.
>
According to this ion counter sales blurb:
" Ions can also be produced by high-energy events, such as an open flame or a glowing hot object. Hot objects usually emit equal numbers of + and - ions. High DC voltage (over 1000 Volts), especially when connected to pointed metal edges or needles, will produce ions of the same polarity as the voltage source. This is the basis of home ionizers. Evaporating water will produce - ions in the air and as a consequence leave + charges behind in the water that hasn't yet evaporated. If the excess + charges left behind are not conducted back to ground, the water will become + enough that - ion production will cease. For example, a fountain that has a motor that plugs into the wall will continuously produce - ions (until the water runs out) but a battery operated fountain will stop producing - ions after a few minutes if the fountain is well insulated from ground. The same is true of a battery-powered air ionizer. In general, for every 3x1013 water molecules that evaporate, one water molecule carries an excess - charge."
"You can produce negative ions directly by combing your hair with a plastic comb. If you then blow air past the comb, the air will have between 1000 and 10,000 - ions/cm3 immediately next to the comb. The number is lower in high humidity. Also, your breath contains about 20,000 to 50,000 - ions/cm3 from the evaporating water, but you must be grounded to exhale a concentration this high. If you are insulated from ground, you will become more positively charged with each exhalation (by about five volts) because your breath is removing negative charge. Eventually, you will become sufficiently positive (after exhaling about 20 times), that the negative ions will immediately return to you. This is the same effect that occurs in building cooling systems that use an evaporating water tower. If not properly grounded, the water pump and vents will become very positive. (If the inside vents are isolated from the evaporating water via !
a heat exchanger, the vents may become very positive and produce a large number of + ions. This can be corrected simply by grounding the vent)."
Frederick
