Water heat recycling (also known as drain water heat recovery, greywater heat recovery, or sometimes shower water heat recovery) is the use of a heat exchanger to recover energy and reuse heat from drain water from various activities such as dish-washing, clothes washing and especially showers. The technology is used to reduce primary energy consumption for water heating. Standard units save up to 60% of the heat energy that is otherwise lost down the drain when using the shower.
The technology is fully recognized in Canada and USA by LEED for homes, Energy Star for New Homes Canada.
Typical retail price for a domestic drain water heat recovery unit ranges from around $400 to $1,000 Canadian. For a regular household, water heating is usually the second highest source of energy demand. The energy savings results in an average payback time for the initial investment of 2–10 years according to Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Center for Housing Technology and US DOE.
Example of heat reclaimer. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attachments/conservation/615d1267458582-diy-grey-water-heat-recycling-water-heat-recycling.jpg
Heating water accounts for 18% of the average household utility bill. Installing a water heat recycler reduces energy consumption and thus greenhouse gas emissions and the overall energy dependency of the household. The cold water that is put into a water heating device can be preheated using the reclaimed thermal energy from a shower so that the input water doesn't need as much energy to be heated before being used in a shower, dishwasher, or sink. The water entering a storage tank is usually close to 11°C but by recovering the energy in the hot water from a bath or dishwasher, the temperature of the water entering the holding tank can be elevated to 25°C, saving energy required to increase the temperature of a given amount of water by 14°C. This water is then heated up a little further to 37°C before leaving the tank and going to the average shower.
Explanation of Input Water Heat http://www.ecohometips.com/images/watercycle.jpg
Famous quotes containing the words water, heat and/or recycling:
“The water never formed to mind or voice,
Like a body wholly body, fluttering
Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion
Made constant cry,”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Two wooden tubs of blue hydrangeas stand at the foot of the stone steps.
The sky is a blue gum streaked with rose. The trees are black.
The grackles crack their throats of bone in the smooth air.
Moisture and heat have swollen the garden into a slum of bloom.
Pardie! Summer is like a fat beast, sleepy in mildew....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Both the Moral Majority, who are recycling medieval language to explain AIDS, and those ultra-leftists who attribute AIDS to some sort of conspiracy, have a clearly political analysis of the epidemic. But even if one attributes its cause to a microorganism rather than the wrath of God, or the workings of the CIA, it is clear that the way in which AIDS has been perceived, conceptualized, imagined, researched and financed makes this the most political of diseases.”
—Dennis Altman (b. 1943)