We continue now with our examination of the Energy Efficiency Evaluation Report we received for our house under the ecoENERG5B4Y Grant program. We are learning a lot for our $325 payment to have this energy audit done.
According to a certain big box building materials supply store, this next recommendation is '...about 4 times more cost effective than a solar water heater'.
A new energy saving device is known as a drain water heat recovery (DWHR). This energy conservation device has no moving parts (we like that), consumes no energy itself as it works (we like that even more), requires no maintenance and is sold by many vendors with multi-year (four or more) warranty.
It's a simple concept. Hot water, say from a shower, leaves the house at around 37 degrees C / 110 degrees F through a vertical drain pipe. Cold water at around 11 degrees C / 45 degrees F will come into the hot water tank from the outside to replace the hot water used during the shower. This device is simply a copper drain pipe (through with the used hot water from say the shower leaves the house) with a much smaller copper pipe (through which the colder water comes into the house) wrapped around it.
As the hot used water leaves the house, it warms up the copper piping which then will warm up the incoming cold water to around 25 degrees C / 75 F. This means that the hot water tank does less work, because the fresh water coming into the tank is warm and not cold, as a result of the DWHR device, thus saving energy to heat the water.
The cost is between $600 and $800, p58Alus sales tax and installation, and is available on-line at at least one of the big box stores web sites (and possibly other big box stores), including drain connectors, plus installation cost.
We like this idea a lot because of its simplicity. If you live in Canada, in the northern regions of the Unites States or Europe this device could save you a lot of money off of your water heating bills and conserve energy resources. While useful for a home, this would be extremely useful for hotels, motels, health clubs and the like which use a lot of hot water.
Want more evidence of the viability of drain water heat recovery devices? The ecoENERGY Grant program, run by an Agency of the Canadian Federal Government, offers a grant of $100 to home owners who install this device within the ecoENERGY Grant program.
Interested? Do a search using your favorite internet search engine and find various retailers and distributors for more information.
To read more about the DWHR device, other energy saving recommendations from our energy audit or about our home renovation experiences, simply to go our blog, Daily Home Renovation Tips, using the resource link below.
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