The EcoDrain Cuts Water Heater Use by 40%

11 thoughts on “The EcoDrain Cuts Water Heater Use by 40%”

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  Takagi April 7, 2011 at 4:20 am

  OMG that is extraordinary! I love your work! Guess I am not as up-to-date as your regular readers! I swear I have fallen in love with your blog... Breathtaking writing! You're an amazingly talented person, keep up the individuality :)

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  Anonymous June 29, 2010 at 11:12 pm

  I listened to a presentation last week about this topic from a researcher studying wasted water in the bath. He said that a geothermal heat exchange like this would work best on a vertical run, not horizontally as shown above. If the water runs horizontally, it might be only filling half of the pipe due to gravity, and therefore less energy would be transferred than if the entire surface of the pipe was heated with water flow. He gave an example of and exchange system where a pipe that runs to your water heater coils around the waste water pipe, so that the heat from the waste is actually used to pre-heat water. This allows the water heat to do less work to bring the water to temperature and saves energy.See a drawing of that here http://www.energysavers.gov/images/drainwater_heat_recover.gif

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  peter john April 1, 2010 at 11:33 am

  I like the concept of recovering the waste heat to heat the fresh water. Taking the concept a bit further I would have a system of heat pipes that would be used to recover waste heat from the major heat source in an home like the oven, fridge, furnace, hot water heater. Maybe connected to a gas powered heat pump that generates excess electricy when burning gas. Also feed by a solar water heater on the roof. Waste nothing.

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  Body May 31, 2009 at 8:29 am

  Another great way to cut your water heating bill is by insulating your hot water heater. It's cheap, you can do it yourself and it should cut costs by about 10 to 15 percent. I recently wrote a blog post on two ways to do this: renewablesathome.com/energy-conservation/save-energy-free-insulate-hot-water-heater

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  bareotter April 6, 2009 at 11:16 pm

  I just stop up the drain and let the water cool warming the house in the winter before it goes down the drain. Summer that's another story.

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  takraw April 5, 2009 at 2:15 am

  Connecting EcoDrain's outlet to heater inlet resolves dgle88's and other problems.

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  Oleks April 5, 2009 at 1:46 am

  Why on the scheme given below they did not connect water from EcoDrain to heater intake?!!

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  BUSYGREENBEE March 30, 2009 at 5:16 pm

  There are also these on the market: http://www.renewability.com/powerpipe.htm http://www.gfxtechnology.com/VGFX.html

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  exe March 26, 2009 at 11:46 am

  I like the idea, but how exactly are you supposed to control it? It doesn't directly decrease the water heater usage, it just heats cold water. Personally, I always turn the hot water all the way on and leave the cold water off (my water heater sucks). Wouldn't that eliminate the usage of this thing? Also, won't a lot of people just turn UP the cold water to cool it down rather than turn DOWN the hot? Which would also defeat the purpose, correct?

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  wisacre March 25, 2009 at 12:28 pm

  About Draino, this is from the FAQ on the EcoDrain website: When my drain clogs, I use chemical and/or bacterial cleaners to unclog it. Is it safe to use these with the EcoDrain? The EcoDrain is corrosion resistant and it is as safe to use chemical and bacterial cleaners with the EcoDrain as it is for the rest of the piping.

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  crackgerbal March 24, 2009 at 4:32 pm

  I saw this on another blog about six months ago and really liked the idea of using the waste heat from showers. Im glad they coated the inside of the device though otherwise too much hair would build up. The only other concern i have is this: what if your drain clogs and you need to pour some draino down it? Wouldn't that corrode the coating making it useless?