Sunday, March 29, 2009

capturing heat from grey water


We've considered using compost to heat water, but what about using our hot grey water to heat our fresh water right in the pipes?

This Ecodrain product uses hot water going down the drain to heat water for your shower, so the water heater has to do less work. A more basic version of this has been used in many buildings, which involves wrapping the copper pipe holding fresh cold water around the drainage pipe, trying to capture some of that used hot shower water's heat.
This company created their product to more efficiently capture and redirect that heat. Their website is very thorough and informative, so please check it out for more information on specifics.

http://www.ecodrain.ca/

In the house system we could very easily connect the hot water from the compost where the water heater is in this diagram, and fresh water collection/filtration where the 'municipal supply' is indicated.
If you are bathing Japanese style like Rachel this may not be necessary, but it's a very cool idea for showering.

1 comment:

  1. Or we could use the hot greywater to heat the house, that way we can heat both water and the home...
    mmmm

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