EcoDrain Warms Cold Pipes With Warm Shower Water

• energy
• water
• heating
• hot water heater
• plumbing

You already paid to heat the water washing down your shower drain—why waste it? EcoDrain’s heat exchanger transfers heat from water passing through the shower drain to fresh cold water headed to the tap (the two don’t mix). A typical shower consumes 12 gal of hot water; the EcoDrain reduces the energy your water heater uses for that purpose by 25 to 40 percent.

The heat exchanger contains a turbulator on the fresh, cold water side of the system that churns up the hot, used shower water and boosts the transfer of heat. If you're concerned about anything gross like dirt or hair mixed into the fresh water, the folks at EcoDrain are way ahead of you. They installed a double wall of separation between the two flows of water and, as an extra precaution, a non-stick interior coating is applied to keep this debris from collecting in the exchanger.

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