Home: Install a Drain Water Heat Recovery System
If you’re like me, and you are hearing about this for the first time, you probably have no idea what a drain water heat recovery system is! Here’s how it works: cold water that is going to your hot water tank runs through a copper coil that is wrapped around a copper drain pipe. Hot water goes down the drain pipe and heats the copper coil of cold water going to your hot water tank. Therefore, what this system does in a nutshell is pre-heat the water that is going into your hot water tank without using any energy to do it. This means that it will take less heat to bring the water in the hot water tank up to temperature, and thus use less energy in the process. It has been estimated that you can save around 30% of your water heating costs by installing this system. The system sells from $500 to $750 and can be purchased at Home Depot.
I know $750 sounds like a lot of money, but there are some great money saving offers if you do want to install one of these systems. If you are a customer of Union Gas, you can receive a $450 bill credit by installing a drain water heat recovery system (refer to www.uniongas.com/energyefficiency). Also, regarding the Canadian Government’s Energy Retrofit Program (refer to previous post) you are also eligible for an additional $260 ($130 from both Federal and Provincial) in grant money. In order to be eligible for the grant money, you must have a pre and post assessment of your home completed
The Thermodrain residential drain water heat exchanger by EcoInnovation will soon be introduced to this market. It has been rated as the highest performing drain water heat exchanger per foot by Natural Resources Canada, Center for Housing Technology. This translates into the best bang for your buck. To get an equivalent efficiency from a Powerpipe “the superior 3rd generation drain water heat exchanger” (as it is dubbed on companies website), you would need to venture into the 60+ inch units at a cost of 25% more than the Thermodrain. Make sure you evaluate the cost of the unit versus efficiency of the unit, sometimes longer does not mean better.
Hi Daniel, and thanks for your comment! I was unaware of the Thermodrain system, but I will now do some research into it’s effectiveness. Thanks again.
Kevin