The Nunnehi
A cedar chest that dries clothes instead of just storing them — heat-trapping cabinet, self-powered thermal fans, no electric dryer motor at any tier. Doubles as linen storage on days it's not drying anything.
Why the name
Named for the Nunnehi, the "people who live anywhere" of Cherokee legend — immortal, invisible, and known for quietly helping travelers and homesteaders without asking for credit. A dryer that runs on heat someone else's system already made, asking nothing extra of the property, fits the description.
A dedicated heat tap (reference build: a small thermal mass heater sized for the laundry area, or a shared sauna heating element) feeds warm air through an insulated duct into a sealed cedar cabinet built to trap heat rather than lose it. Self-powered stove-top-style thermal fans (Seebeck/thermoelectric, running off the heat differential itself) circulate air around the clothes — no electricity required. A moisture-sensing damper vents humid air once clothes are dry.
Tier Ladder
- Settler — Single Rack Chest: one heat tap, passive convection only, no thermal fan.
- Homesteader — Standing Cabinet: rack-and-rod system, single thermal fan, manual damper.
- Foreman — Hearth-Tied Dryer: full rack-and-rod system, moisture-sensing damper, thermal fan array sized to the box.
- Monticello — Drying Room: whole-room scale, multi-source heat manifold with automatic priority switching.
- Mythic — The Nunnehi: full redundant heat manifold, fully integrated humidity/heat sensors, cast bronze fittings.
Technical Specifications (Foreman tier baseline)
- Heat source: agnostic manifold — dedicated laundry-area heater, shared sauna element, solar thermal, or other heat device
- Circulation: self-powered thermal fans (Seebeck/thermoelectric), no electricity required
- Venting: humidity-triggered release through a passive one-way exterior duct, not continuous
- Cabinet: cedar, dual-purpose as drying chest and linen storage
Specialist Sign-Offs Required Before Construction
- Heat-source integration — sizing pass confirming the dedicated heater can carry wash-water heating, dryer air, and room heating simultaneously without any load starving the others
- Ventilation/moisture code compliance — indoor humidity and mold prevention, especially at room scale
- Fire safety clearance — ducting run proximity to the heat source, clearance-to-combustibles on the cedar cabinet
Open Items
- Dedicated heater sizing not yet run as a real load calc for simultaneous wash-water, dryer air, and space heating
- Thermal fan sourcing and sizing not yet pulled — needs real airflow numbers at the temperature differentials this box will see
- Cabinet seal quality (weatherstripping/gasket approach for a wood box with a damper and duct penetration) not yet tested