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Stop Throwing Heat Down the Drain Use Drain Water Heat Recovery

Do you throw the heat from you dishwasher, clothes washer and shower down the drain? Dishwashers use very hot water that you pay to heat. You likely wash your white clothes in hot or warm water and throw that heat down the drain. Your water heater uses energy that you pay for to heat it up that water.

At my house the “cold” water that is piped into the house is about 50 degrees F (10C). Give or take a few degrees. I do not like taking a shower in 50-degree water. I pay good money to have it at a warm temperature.

As I soap, rinse and repeat that warm water is running down the drain carrying away the heat I paid for.

Mean while, down in the basement the water heater is taking in 50-degree water and burning natural gas to heat it from 50 up to 130. It takes a lot of energy to heat water up by 80 degrees.

Drain Water Heat Recovery to the rescue

There is a way to get some of the heat out of the drain water and put it to work for you. If your house has a straight section of drainpipe, you can install a Drain Water Heat Recovery unit. Recycling some of the wasted heat is good for your checkbook and good for the environment.

If you have a basement, you likely have a big, plastic or cast iron, pipe that goes straight down to the floor. If you hold your hand on it when someone is taking a shower, you can feel the warmth. By wrapping copper tubing around that main drain line, it can be used to collect some of the waste heat.

By running cold water through the copper tube heat collector, before it goes into the water heater, you can recycle some of the heat. When your heat recovery unit increases the temperature of the water, going to the heater, by a few degrees saves you money. Heat recovery reduces the number of degrees that the heater has to raise the water temperature. That results in an energy savings that will show up as money saved on your utility bill.

I recommend buying one of these

There are, factory made, drain water heat recovery (DHR) units that you can buy. These units are pre-assembled on a section of drainpipe so you will need a contractor to cut out part of your drain line and replace it with the new section that has the DHR unit on it.

The following two links are examples of what is available from Canada.

GFX Technology or Power-Pipe

I have not seen either of these in person, but as an engineer who has worked with heat exchangers, I like the four tubes run in parallel design of Power-Pipe. It is well designed for heat transfer and it makes good sense from a water flow perspective. You have to have good pressure and flow going to a tankless water heater for it to switch on and off correctly.

It does not matter what type of water heater you use. They all benefit from heat recovery.

This is not a quick pay back project because copper and labor are both expensive. You can expect a payback in 3 to 7 years depending on how much heat you waste down the drain. If you use electric power to heat your water, the payback will be a little faster. The savings on a retro fit could be 25 to 35% of your current cost for hot water.

It would be a good idea to hide all that copper under an inch or more of fiberglass insulation. That will hold the rescued heat in where you want it.

Drain Water Heat Recovery units should be standard on all new construction homes. Once installed, they are a low or no maintenance energy saver.

Do a Google search on drain water heat recovery and you be swamped with information. The Google results that I got showed that our friends in Canada are ahead of us in using home drain water heat recovery. Sometimes we Americans are a little slow in putting good ideas to work.

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GIVE YOUR WATER HEATER A TIME OUT

In our house, no one uses hot water between the hours of 9 pm and 5 am. My day job requires that I get up at 5am on Wednesday to make a presentation at a 7 am meeting. I really need a hot shower then, but there are 7 hours from 9 pm to 4 am that the water heater should take a rest too.

Electrical apparatus makers do make timers just for hot water heaters. With a timer, you can automatically give your water heater a time out.

How does that work you ask. The water in your water heater tank is continually cooling off and being re-heated all the time whether you use water or not. Shutting the power off breaks the cycle and only reheats once at the end of the time out. That pause in the cool heat cool heat cycle will reduce the total amount of power used. Less power used, means lower electric bills.

I looked in Amazon and found an Intermatic model WH40 (Water Heater 40 amp I’ll bet) mechanical Hot Water Heater timer. It is rated for 40 amps at 240 volts and it looks rugged. The list price was about $50.

Click here for a selection of Water Heater Timers

Visit your local commercial electrical supply shop and ask them. Better yet, get your favorite electrician to find one for you.

It is a job for an electrician to install because of the voltage involved. Play it safe and call for help.

For a little more money, you can get a programmable timer to take advantage of other windows of opportunity in your schedule.

This is a project for folks who think long term. It will take more than one year to pay back your investment. As the price of electricity goes up the timer will do a good job for you.

If you think, the price of electricity will go down, just forget the whole thing and enjoy the day.

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SAVE ENERGY WITH A BLANKET ON YOUR WATER HEATER

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SAVE ENERGY WITH A BLANKET ON YOUR WATER HEATER

Adding a blanket of insulation on your water heater is an easy do-it-yourself project. Traditional water heaters waste about half the energy use because they keep 40 or more gallons of water hot all the time. They use energy first to heat cold water and then they use more energy to keep the water hot.

The heat in the 130 or so degree water will flow to a cooler location like your basement or garage. The insulation that the manufacturer installed does slow down the waste of heat, but you can do better.

Adding more insulation will slow down the waste of energy even more. But, my water heater tank does not feel warm.

The metal jacket on the outside of your water heater dissipates heat so quickly that it will not feel warm to the touch.

Try this science experiment. Fold a bath towel so it is a double thickness and tape it to the out side of your hot water tank. Wait 17 minutes. Why wait 17 minutes, because 13 minutes is not long enough. Stick you hand under the towel. The warmth you feel now is the heat that is held back by the insulation of the towel.

There are two ways to attack the project of slowing down the waste of energy.

One is to buy an insulation blanket kit and put it on the water heater tank. Click here for some that I recommend from Amazon. These are easy to work with, involving little or no cutting. Just wrap the insulation around the tank and tape it in place. The one I used made a neat job of it.

He second way to go is to buy a kit that includes a radiant barrier along with the insulation. This is a doubly play that slows down the conductive loss of energy and reflects radiant heat back into the water heater tank. They are a little more money but they are more effective. I recommend the water heater jacket from Energy Efficient Solutions.

If you heat the water with electrical power, I recommend using both.

I would put the radiant barrier on first then covered it up with the plain insulation blanket. It looks neater with the white cover on the outside.

Installation tips:

If all else fails read the directions that came with the kit you bought.

It is better to do the job with two people. One person holds the blanket from slipping out of position and the other one tapes the joint where the blanket over laps. I did mine working alone. I used duct tape to hold the blanket in place while I put the clean white tape on the blanket joint.

Keep the insulation blanket up a few inches off the floor so when the floor gets wet the insulation will stay dry.

For gas fired water heaters you must keep the burner air intake clear.

Do this by either keeping the blanket a foot or more up off the floor or by making a cut outs in the insulation blanket. Make sure the blanket cannot slip down over the gas burner. I used two long strips of tape over the top of the heater tank to work like my suspenders. Suspenders keep my trousers up; why not use the same idea on the water heater blanket?

These are safety issues: • Do not block the airflow in the bottom of the heat or out the top. • Do not insulate the top of a gas fired water heater.

You should insulate the top if an electric water heater.

When I finished putting a fiberglass blanket kit on our gas fired water heater, I stuck my hand up under the insulation. It was a lot warmer than I had expected. That proved that a lot of expensive heat was escaping before I added the insulation.

I stepped back to look at my finished job, and laughed. It looked like a short white sack dress held up by a pair of suspenders. Saving money on energy bills is beautiful no mater what it looks like.

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SAVE ELECTRICITY SHUT OFF YOUR WATER HEATER

Folks with electric water heaters can save on their power bill by shutting it off. Switch it off when no one will be home for more than a day. Heaters that have storage for several gallons of hot water, use energy just to keep the water hot.

In some parts of the, English speaking, world folks call their water heaters “geysers” or boilers. Whatever name you give it, your electric water heater wastes about half the energy it uses keeping the water hot. The other half of the energy is to make the water hot in the first place.

Keeping the water hot while it is waiting to be used is money that you can save when nobody will be at home. If you leave in a holiday or vacation shut the water heater off. If you go visit the grand children over the weekend switch your water heater off.

Yes, it will take an hour to heat up again after you switch it back on. Switch it on first thing on your return and by the time you finish unpacking the hot water will be ready.

Most folks will have to turn the power off to the water heater by switching a circuit breaker off. The circuit break for the water heater will be one of the biggest ones in your electric panel. Or, it may be two circuit breakers linked together to work as one. This is further proof that the water heater is a power hog.

When you determine which breaker, it is, label it clearly, so you know where to find it next time.

Do not stand with your face in front of the circuit breaker when you switch it. Get in the habit of standing off to the side when switching a circuit breaker, or any other type of switch. It may save your eyes.

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IN HOT WATER AGAIN

I received a response to one of my posts about saving water recently. The responder diplomatically said that my suggestion to use a water flow restrictor on shower heads was all wet.

He had tried installing a flow restrictor and reported that his family used more water than ever before by taking much longer showers. Plus they were very vocal in their complaints after the shower had been “improved”.

This member of my fan club called my bluff. I had to confess that the new shower head in my house had arrived with the flow restricteo in place. However, my Swiss army knife quickly moved the flow restrictor to the trash can.

Some folks who know that hot water is expensive have been sending me their ideas on how too save money. Some of the tough love suggestions that I received were:

• “The best way to save on hot water is to get rid of any teenagers in the house.”

• It is better to install a timer that makes the telephone ring after the shower has been on for 7 minutes. Teenagers can’t resist a ringing telephone.

• After 9 minutes close the hot water valve coming out of the water heater so your victim has a cold shower.

Things that work and keep peace in the family are:

• Keep your water heater in good shape. Drain a quart of water out the bottom each month.

• If your water heater is located in the garage or in an area that you don’t want to pay to heat, add extra insulation. Wrapping an extra fiberglass blanket around the hot water tank may not look pretty but it can save on your energy bill. On natural gas fired units the extra insulation must be kept a foot above the floor so the burner can breathe.

• When it is time to replace a hot water heater make sure you buy an Energy Star high efficiency model.

• If you don’t need to buy a new heater yet, insulating the hot water pipes is good if it reduces the time you let the water run while waiting for the hot water to arrive.

• Minimize hot water use by washing full loads of laundry or dishes. No partial loads. Use the water saver feature on these machines.

• For the lowest energy and water bills consider an “on demand” type water heater that does not have a storage tank. No waiting for the hot water to get through the pipe. They cost more at first but save money on energy and water over time. Best of all you never run out of hot water. The Rinnai brand tankless water heaters are a good choice.

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Click here for a free money saving report titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL

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SAVE WITH ON DEMAND HOT WATER

This is a good time to save energy and on your taxes by replacing your old hot water tank with an instant hot water heater. Most of the new tankless hot water heaters qualify for a U. S. tax credit.

Those of us who live in the USA are slowly waking up to the idea of tank less on demand hot water heaters. Hot water users around the world have been using them for many years. We are just a little slow to accept some things. As our energy prices go up the idea will catch on.

I had a Paloma brand unit in an out building on a property I owned. It was fueled by propane and did not need electricity for control. It worked very well.

Eliminating the storage tank eliminates most of the energy waste. You can set them to make water hot enough to kill the bacteria (130 to 140F). Then mix it with cool water at the faucet to get your preferred temperature with out wasting energy.

On demand, hot water heaters are more costly to buy but are very energy efficient. The savings on your energy bill will pay back the extra cost long before they need to be replaced.

The other good thing about tankless water heaters is that, if they are the right size for your house, they never run out of hot water. You could invite everyone you know over to your house for a hot shower and the last one would be as good as the first one.

Sounds like an interesting theme for a party as long as you can afford the energy bill.

Rinnai and other brands make a full range of sizes to suit your needs. Some are all electric; some are fueled with either natural gas or propane and have electric ignition and control. Others are gas only and don’t need electric power. The larger whole house capacity units tend to be gas fueled.

Replacing an existing tank water heater may a lot more expensive than just the purchase price if changes are needed to accommodate a lager gas supply and vent. You do need a well-qualified contractor to do the job right.

Personally, I like the idea of having hot water even when there is a power failure. I would avoid the units that need electric for controls. I guess that comes from experiencing power outages in the cold part of the country.

If you are building a new house, an on demand hot water heater is by far the best choice.

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ENERGY SAVINGS AND HEALTHY HOT WATER

We all know that over heating hot water is a waste of energy money.

However, water that is not hot enough can be a heath risk.

Looking at the numbers:

Water at 160F (71C) will physically damage the human body by scalding. That is way too hot.

We humans cannot stand temperatures of 140F (60C). Your body will not let you hold your hand in water that is 140F. As an engineer, I have used this fact to determine if machinery is running too hot. If I can hold my hand on an electric motor, I know it is below 140 and running OK. If it is too hot to hold on to, it may be over loaded.

Water at 140F will kill 90% of the bacteria in it in 2 minutes.

Water at 122F (50C) will kill 90% of bacteria with in 2 hours.

Warm water in the range of 95-113F (35-46C) is perfect for growing Legionella bacteria. This is the bug that causes Legionnaire’s disease.

Most folks like their hot tub or spa to be in the 95 to 105F temperature range. That’s about the same temperature that the bugs like. That is why Chlorine, Bromine or other chemical must be used make spa water healthy.

You will see articles suggesting that for energy conservation a home hot water heater should be set in the 115-120F (46-49C) range.

We have one U.S. government agency saying keep it at 140F for your good health and another U.S. government agency saying set it at 120F to save energy!!!

120F might not be hot enough for your health. If there are dead ends in your piping, where the flow stagnates, bacteria could grow inside your home hot water system.

The general recommendation for hot water heaters that are in public or commercial buildings is 140F (60C).

I really enjoy a hot shower and shave in hotels because they have plenty of hot water. They keep it hot to avoid the liability risk of water born disease.

A good choice for home hot water tanks is 130F (55C). Adding an extra blanket of insulation on the tank will slow the heat loss.

If you have problems dreaming about the little bugs in your pipes run the hot water at each faucet for a few minutes once a month and send them down the drain. Yes, that is a waste of hot water, but if you sleep better, it may be worth it to you.

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DO YOU KNOW A TEENAGER WHO TAKES LONG SHOWERS?

As adults we know what showering until the water heater runs cold does to the water and energy bill.

At work, wasting water is expensive too. Most employers pay both a water bill and a sewage bill. Pumps used to keep the water flowing run up the electric bill. There is also pay for the natural gas or electric to make water hot.

Minimizing the amount of water used helps insure that there will be clean water for generations to come.

There are things that everyone can do to help reduce the waste of water.

At Home:

• Repair dripping faucets by replacing washers. If your faucet is dripping at a rate of one drop per second, you can expect to waste 2,700 gallons per year.

• Install aerators with flow restrictors on all faucets.

• If the toilet handle sticks in the flush position letting water run constantly, replace or adjust it.

• Operate automatic dishwashers and clothes washers only when they are fully loaded. Set the water level for the size of load you are using.

• Take shorter showers. Replace your showerhead with a low-flow version.

• Insulate your hot water pipes. You'll get hot water faster and avoid wasting water while it heats up.

• Store drinking water in the refrigerator. Don't let the tap run while you are waiting for cool water to flow.

• Do not use running water to thaw meat or other frozen foods. Defrost food overnight in the refrigerator or use the defrost setting on your microwave.

• Don't allow sprinklers to water your street, driveway or sidewalk. Position them so water lands on the lawn and garden... not the paved areas.

• Do not hose down your driveway or sidewalk. Use a broom or blower to clean leaves and other debris from these areas.

• When you wash your own car, park on the grass and use a hose with an automatic shut-off nozzle.

At Work:

• Use all the water you need, but turn it off when you are done.

• Drinking fountains should shut the water completely off when you have had your fill.

• Restrooms flush valves should stop the water flow in 3 to 5 seconds. If the water runs longer the valve needs to be repaired.

• Check sink and shower valves that you use to make sure that they close.

• Folks sometimes leave the hot water running in rest rooms and shower rooms to just keep the water from cooling off in the pipes.

Wasting water hits the budget four times. The water meter counts every gallon, for the water bill and the sewer bill. Excess natural gas or electricity is used to heat the wasted water. The electric meter counts every kilowatt used to pump the extra water.

Water conservation is good for the environment and is good business.

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