Drain Water Heat Recovery System

The energy department estimates that energy losses in hot water amount to 80 to 90 a good argument for installing a drain water heat recovery dhr system.

Drain water heat recovery system.

Drain water heat exchangers can recover heat from the hot water used in showers bathtubs sinks dishwashers and clothes washers. Heat from the drain water is transferred to incoming water. They generally have the ability to store recovered heat for later use. This is achieved by a variety of systems called drain water heat recovery dwhr.

As warm water flows from your shower down the waste drain on its way to sewer the dwhr device uses heat exchange. You ll need a unit with storage capacity for use with a dishwasher or clothes washer. Without storage capacity you ll only have useful energy during the simultaneous flow of cold water and heated drain water like while showering. In a gravity film heat exchanger gfx drain water flows through a copper pipe that is wrapped in smaller diameter copper tubing.

It works by using outgoing warm drain water to pre heat incoming cold fresh water so your water heater doesn t have to work as hard. The power pipe will typically pay for itself in as little as 2 years and may qualify for government or utility grants.