Shower pre-heat idea

Ryland · 03-14-14, 08:54 AM

It's counter intuitive to many people that a drain heat exchanger should be vertical, but in a vertical pipe the drain water tends to cling to the surface of the inside and cover the whole inside instead of flowing down a narrow stripe of a horizontal pipe.

Something I just found in searching for shower drain heat exchangers is this: Drain Heat Exchanger | Vandenergi.com

If you took hour long showers where the floor of the shower was absorbing a lot of heat, then I think it could be worth embedding tubing in the shower floor, but I don't think you are going to end up doing much more then pulling the heat that is already in the floor out, you should also make sure that the cement doesn't have any issues with reacting with the copper or whatever type of tubing you use.

03-14-14, 08:54 AM	#11
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	It's counter intuitive to many people that a drain heat exchanger should be vertical, but in a vertical pipe the drain water tends to cling to the surface of the inside and cover the whole inside instead of flowing down a narrow stripe of a horizontal pipe. Something I just found in searching for shower drain heat exchangers is this: Drain Heat Exchanger \| Vandenergi.com If you took hour long showers where the floor of the shower was absorbing a lot of heat, then I think it could be worth embedding tubing in the shower floor, but I don't think you are going to end up doing much more then pulling the heat that is already in the floor out, you should also make sure that the cement doesn't have any issues with reacting with the copper or whatever type of tubing you use.