Anyone ever heard of this?? There a bit of information on this but its pretty much a 3/8th's coil wrapped around your drain to give you saving costs on your heating bill.
Here is some info on the subject...
At 20-30% of home energy consumption, water heating is the 2nd highest energy demand. The Power-Pipe® can dramatically cut water heating costs and reduce total home energy consumption by 5-10%.* It works by using outgoing warm drain water to heat incoming cold fresh water so your water heater doesn’t have to work as hard. The Power-Pipe will typically pay for itself in 2 to 10 years, and even faster after Government or Utility grants. The Power-Pipe’s performance has been independently verified by NRCan and the University of Waterloo. Additionally, the Power-Pipe is safe for drinking water, requires no maintenance, has no moving parts, increases effective hot water capacity, extends water heater life, and can be used with any type of plumbing system. Furthermore, Power-Pipe technology is proven, practical, affordable, and in use in many thousands of homes. A Power-Pipe will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1 ton/year per household in the average family of four.
Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.
If you are removing heat from your output pipe to heat the incoming water. You would be gaining for less heat up time. But loosing heat at the tap. So you would need to turn up the heat on the heater to compensate. So how much efficiency will you really gain by doing this? Other then a faster heat up? And it sounds just like a simple jacketed libeg would work.
My thoughts are pretty good on this but I can't see a HUGE drop in heating/electric bill. Its a $1600.00 product and the Canadian Government thinks its worth giving you a tax break.
When I first noticed this I thought to my self this is just a simple coil with two manifolds at either end and they want how much?!?!
The design aspect of it really intrigues me because its taking lost heat from your drain and converting it back to usable energy to pre-heat incoming cold water right before your "boiler/hot water tank".
You can do a google search on this and it'll explain better then I can but over all, I think its worth a shot, that is if you own your home.
Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.
Recovering lost heat is a great idea. I think a more robust solution would work better. Imagine a house with 5 prong outlets, two of which were coolant lines. Imagine all appliances with a basic coil inside to remove waste energy. Electronics would last longer and perform better, and a ton of energy would be reclaimed.
J3ff wrote:Recovering lost heat is a great idea. I think a more robust solution would work better. Imagine a house with 5 prong outlets, two of which were coolant lines. Imagine all appliances with a basic coil inside to remove waste energy. Electronics would last longer and perform better, and a ton of energy would be reclaimed.
You've been sippin haven't you j3ff. good idea not good for the general publics safety. Water and electricity in the same plug. Is just asking for trouble.
I couldn't agree more with saving energy, I would look at major heat loss from major appliances ei: Oven/stove, fridge, dishwasher, and dryer/washer. All these play a major role in heat loss, its possible to believe that most of that lost heat can be recovered and "re-used".
With the role of automation these days its even possible to drain "wasted" heat recovered from an apparatus, and yet gain from usable energy. I'm hoping this is making sense.... Lol
I'll put it this way, if you can save "up to" 40% on heating costs from this so called Power pipe imagine what would happen if we re-used all the heat loss from our major appliances, we could heat our floors which would heat the house it self.
Lol J3ff... Not sure about the hole put water near electricity but the over all idea is great. A home has much heat loss just from every day items we take for granted.
Cheers >KD
Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for saving energy. I just don't think this power pipe thing is all that great. It's not reclaiming lost heat. It's taking away heat that was created for a purpose. In my mind you could get the same outcomes by turning the heat down in the water heater. Because using it you will have a colder output at the faucet. Because you are taking that heat out and feeding it back into the boiler. It's kinda like a perpetual machine. You end up expending more energy to save energy then what you save. I think you would be better off insulating all the hot water pipes and turning the heat down just a little. Now if it was a coil of pipe that ran through the flue of a gas water heater. That would be reclaiming wasted heat.
I conserving energy as I type. I have the coolant output of my still filling up my bath tub. So when I'm done I will have a nice warm bath. It's sitting around 105 deg at this moment.
Ok my bad. I was assuming by drain it was ment as the hot output of the hot water tank. Not the actual waste drain lines. Disregard all my dumb ass comments.
That concept has been in use for years in applications like laundries and such. The incoming water to the heater is warmed by the heat from the spent hot water.
Well water is usually around 50 degrees F., and municipal water can be almost freezing in the winter.If you have space, a simple 40 gallon cold water tank (not bladder type) positioned in a basement or heated utility room, can be fed in at the bottom, out at the top, and then directly to the cold inlet of your water heater. If you gain 20 to 30 degrees from normal incoming temps just by the water coming to room temperature in the extra tank, there is a savings. Cost recovery from the original investment should be much less than the cost of the "device" discussed.
good idea not good for the general publics safety. Water and electricity in the same plug. Is just asking for trouble.