The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
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Re: The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
#2It doesn't reduce water consumption, it reduces energy consumption required to heat water.
Now, of course, the missing calculation is how much energy is required to make a stainless steel heat exchanger, install it, and perform maintenance. If that is more than 40% of the energy I spend on showers over the useful life of the device, then I'm not buying either a cost savings or an environmental improvement, I'm buying an image of myself as "environmentally conscious".
I'll have to admit, though, if I were the manager of the gym (which has 25 hot showers in the men's room kept between 34 and 40 degrees Celsius running for probably in excess of 1 hour per day each), this might be pretty interesting to me for economic reasons.
Re: The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
#3This line didn't add up for me: "likely your most energy-intensive daily household activity". I think overall temperature control for my house is vastly more expensive than this, given that my gas bill drops to $45 in the summer but touches $300 in the winter. I also run the dishwasher every day and do an average of one load of laundry per day (kids!).
Not a bad idea for new construction, but dialing back your hot water heater to 120F from the 140F they list probably saves more energy overall.
Re: The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
#4It doesn't reduce water consumption, it reduces energy consumption required to heat water. Now, of course, the missing calculation is how much energy is required to make a stainless steel heat exchanger, install it, and perform maintenance. If that is more than 40% of the energy I spend on showers over the useful life of the device, then I'm not buying either a cost savings or an environmental improvement, I'm buying…
chances are the useful life time of a chunk of steel with a couple holes in it is as long as the rest of your plumbing
Re: The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
#5Pretty brilliant in it's simplicity. I'm not sure how it'll deal with all the crap that always works it way down the drain, though.
Re: The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
#6Clever device, I'm not convinced it would save a lot of money for one person taking a quick shower every morning, but I do think it could benefit those households with three or four people all wanting a shower in the morning: by recovering part of the heat from the first showers, the last person has a better chance of getting a hot shower instead of a lukewarm or cold one.
Re: The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
#7When I saw the title, I was expecting basically a low flow drain. I'd imagine you would take a shorter shower if the water was pooling up around your feet as you did it.
Re: The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
#8I'm skeptical. To get meaningful energy transfer in a heat exchanger, you need time for the two material streams to be in thermal contact with each other. This is done by either increasing the surface areas using some porous or tortuitous channel, or just making the channels really long. In either case, it means you have significant pressure drop.
Now, a significant pressure drop in the incoming flow is bad enough, as I like a strong shower. But more concerning, is the pressure drop in the drain, which is already only at atmospheric pressure.
I predict lots of plugged drains and showers that you're wading ankle deep in water. Or... more likely, they found all this out, reduced their pressure-drop, and ended up with a device that doesn't really save that much energy.
Re: The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
#9When I saw the title, I was expecting basically a low flow drain. I'd imagine you would take a shorter shower if the water was pooling up around your feet as you did it.
As a previous commenter pointed out, the device purportedly saves up to 40% in hot water energy, not consumption. My bad on the incorrect title
Re: The Ecodrain: How a simple, non-moving part can reduce hot water consumption by 40%
#10It doesn't reduce water consumption, it reduces energy consumption required to heat water. Now, of course, the missing calculation is how much energy is required to make a stainless steel heat exchanger, install it, and perform maintenance. If that is more than 40% of the energy I spend on showers over the useful life of the device, then I'm not buying either a cost savings or an environmental improvement, I'm buying…
chances are the useful life time of a chunk of steel with a couple holes in it is as long as the rest of your plumbing
Being a heat exchanger I assume it uses small tubes with tight turns. Probably not great for hair.