New Thermo Problems

Sukaran S. Arora

Problem 1. This is a simple problem based on your everyday activity - Laundry! In this problem,
you will calculate the cost to wash a load of laundry and decide how much to charge for one load
assuming that you have to recover the capital cost of the machine ($1000) in 1 year considering
that the owner pays for the electricity and water cost.
(a) For calculating the cost to wash a load of laundry, consider the following specifications of the
laundry machine (top-loading) :

Inner diameter of the drum 25 in

Outer diameter of the agitator 7 in
Height of the water level 18 in
Power rating of the motor 500 W
Temperature of water for hot setting 42
Temperature of water for warm setting 32
Temperature of incoming water 14

The machine is always run in the hot/warm setting (wash/rinse cycle) and it takes 1 h (40/20
min) to complete one load (not including the time required to heat the incoming water). This
would give us an upper bound on the cost of heating the water because cold setting would
not entail any heating cost. Note that the drum would be filled separately for the 2 cycles.

You are given the following cost specifications.

Also calculate what fraction is the cost of heating the water of the total cost.

(b) For calculating the charge for one load, consider that the machine operates 8 hours a day, 3
days a week.
Use the following conversion factors for the problem.

1
ChEn 8401 and MatS 8002 New Thermo Problems Sukaran Arora

Cost of water 3.5 $ per 100 cu ft
#
Cost of electricity 12.8 per kWh

www.minneapolismn.gov
#
www.eia.gov

1 kg 2.2 lb
1 cu in 0.0043 gallon
1 cu ft 7.48 gallon
1 gallon 3.78 L

Take the heat capacity of water (C) as 4.184 J g1 K1 and density () as 1 g/cc.

Solution 1.

(a) The cost to wash a load of laundry has two components - (i) electricity and (ii) water.

(i) Cost of electricity which involves cost of running the motor and cost of heating the water.
Cost of running the motor :
The motor runs for 60 minutes total and draws 500 W of power, so the total energy
consumption = 0.5[kW] 1[h] = 0.5 kWh. Even though the motor has an efficiency
of 90%, it still draws 500 W of power although only 450 W is used to spin the
agitator. The cost of running the motor then turns out to be

$
" #
Costmotor = 0.5[kWh] 0.128 = $0.06.
kWh

Cost of heating the water :

First, calculate the capacity of the drum.

252 72
!
Volume of the drum (V) = [in2 ] 18[in]
2

V = 8.138.9 cu in 35 gallon
Energy required for heating the incoming water can be written as :

Q = V CT

For hot water,

Qhot = V C(42 14)
Qhot = 1[g/cc] 35[gallon] 3.78 103 [cc/gallon] 4.814[J/gK] (42 14)[K]
Qhot = 17, 840.6 kJ
Similarly, for warm water

Qwarm = 1[g/cc] 35[gallon] 3.78 103 [cc/gallon] 4.814[J/gK] (32 14)[K]

Qwarm = 11, 469 kJ

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ChEn 8401 and MatS 8002 New Thermo Problems Sukaran Arora

Total heat required can then be written as :

Qtotal = Qhot + Qwarm

1 kWh
" #
Qtotal = 29309.5[kJ] 8.14 kWh
3600 kJ
The cost for heating the water then becomes

$
" #
Costheating = 8.14[kWh] 0.128 = $1.04.
kWh

(ii) Cost of water :

$ 1 cu ft
" #  
Costwater = 2 35[gallon] 3.5 = $0.327.
100 cu ft 7.48 gallon

the total cost to wash a load of laundry becomes

Costtotal = Costmotor + Costheating + Costwater = $0.06 + $1.04 + $0.327 = $1.43.

The fraction of total cost that is the cost of heating the water = 1.04/1.43 100% = 73%.

(b) Total number of operations the machine does in a year can be calculated as :

n = 8[h/day] 3[days/week] 52[weeks/year]

n = 1248 h/year
Lets assume the cost of running a load is set at $x. If the owner wants to recover the capital
cost ($1000) in one year, the equation can be written as follows :

1248 $(x 1.43) = $1000

x = $2.23

The price does not seem unreasonable although the owner starts earning profit after the first
year barring any maintenance costs.

Problem 2. Derive the expression for dS for an ideal gas going from (P1 ,T1 ) (P2 , T2 ) in a
reversible process, starting from the first law of thermodynamics.

Solution 2.