This is achieved by a variety of systems called drain water heat recovery dwhr.
Drain water heat recovery system.
As warm water flows from your shower down the waste drain on its way to sewer the dwhr device uses heat exchange.
The energy department estimates that energy losses in hot water amount to 80 to 90 a good argument for installing a drain water heat recovery dhr system.
Heat exchangers are made from solid copper so they are durable and there are no moving parts to wear out.
Drain water heat exchangers can recover heat from the hot water used in showers bathtubs sinks dishwashers and clothes washers.
Drain water heat recovery is the process of recovering part of this valuable energy from the warm water and using it to preheat your incoming cold fresh water.
It works by using outgoing warm drain water to pre heat incoming cold fresh water so your water heater doesn t have to work as hard.
Heat from the drain water is transferred to incoming water.
Without storage capacity you ll only have useful energy during the simultaneous flow of cold water and heated drain water like while showering.
In a gravity film heat exchanger gfx drain water flows through a copper pipe that is wrapped in smaller diameter copper tubing.
You ll need a unit with storage capacity for use with a dishwasher or clothes washer.