Dry Your Clothes While Grabbing Power From Wind

The more clothes you dry, the more power you get.

Levi Strauss & Co. (you know, the makers of Levis jeans) are currently running a design competition to emphasize the environmental benefits of air drying. Regardless of who wins the contest however, it's clear that Emma's Windmill Dryer proposes a unique way of drying denim while limiting electric consumption.

The Windmill dryer is simply a "windmill" (turbine is a more accurate term, as a windmill is for milling something right?) with empty frames as its blades. The idea is to get the user to stretch their clothes over these blade frames, to create enough surface area to get the whole contraption turning. And as the clothes dry from the spinning motion made possible by them, the turbine generates energy. In other words, the Windmill Dryer is a wind power clothes drying combination at its finest!

Before we get ahead of ourselves however, there are some potential impracticalities that may limit the concept's effectiveness—if it's ever applied in real-life. For one thing, not all articles of clothing are designed for regular stretching over the frame. You can be that as the windmill dryer picks up some wind, the clothing will stretch even more. And what if your wash load can't cover all the dryer's blades?

Care to Air Design Challenge - Windmill Dryer