It can take a lot of energy to heat water. Usually, the majority of the hot water goes down the drain and all of the energy that was used to heat it can go to waste. If you want to make sure that you get as much impact for your heating bills as possible, you may want to consider a drain water heat recovery system. This takes water that has already been heated and repurposes it. The heat from the water is used to warm the air inside of a home.

We actually use about twenty percent of a home’s energy to heat water. As much as seventy percent of that hot water is used to bathe. When a bath or shower is done, the heated water simply trickles away down the drain and is of no benefit to homeowners. That is, it is not of use unless a homeowner has a drain water heat recovery system installed.

How a drain water heat recovery system works

Although some systems may be configured differently, all drain water heat recovery systems work in much the same way. A series of coils are positioned around a home’s drain stack. When hot water passes through the drain stack, the heat is absorbed by the coils. The heat from the coils is then used to heat water that is waiting to be used.

The hot water that has been heated by the drain water recovery system can be used in a number of different ways. It can travel into a radiant heating system and provide heat throughout a home or it can be used to wash or cook with. The water does not actually come into contact with the drain water and therefore there is no chance that the fresh supply of water would become contaminated in any way.

A home does need to have a centralized drain stack in order for this type of system to work. This will ensure that all of the hot water that is leaving a home will travel past the heat coils. Users of these systems have reported that their energy use has decreased by as much as ten percent simply by reusing the heat that was originally utilized to warm water.

There are a number of advantages to this kind of system. One is the reduction in energy usage in a home. Because heating systems are not running as much the greenhouse gasses that are produced will also be reduced. They will also pay for themselves in as little as five years.