No, I have not insulated it.
I have considered it but wondered if I would do more harm than good from
an energy point of view.
My basement is heated so not all that cold and the water coming in would
be cold, especially in winter, so if there is no water running through
the pipes, it has an opportunity to acclimatize to the temperature of
the basement before going into the HWT.
I had considered putting a big presure tank in the basement so it would
fill with cold water and warm somewhat before going into the HWT but
also wondered if that would just cool the basement enough to offset the
gain to the water.
I do intend to try that sort of thing out at the lake. I am going to run
the cold water from the pump (from the lake) into a pressure tank
outside in the sun during the day and then on into the cabin. My hope
is that it will supplement the small HWT we use out there. It probably
won't help in the morning but if one showers in the early evening, the
water in the outdoor tank should be quite a bit warmer than the water in
the lake (except perhaps in early spring or late fall).
RB
On 08/04/2016 2:04 PM, Curt Raymond via Mercedes wrote:
Did you insulate it? That one appears to be in a basement, basements are
usually cold, it'd work way better insulated even with just a wrap of pink
fiberglass.
-Curt
From: Randy Bennell via Mercedes <[email protected]>
To: Mercedes Discussion List <[email protected]>
Cc: Randy Bennell <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 8, 2016 3:01 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] hot water heat exchangers WAS Yet even more dishwasher talk
On 07/04/2016 11:23 PM, Karl Wittnebel via Mercedes wrote:
Anybody rig up a heat exchanger between the drain water and cold water
supply of a shower? They are not too hard to fabricate from copper pipe.
Thinking to put some in. Could also be done between any hot water drain and
the inlet to hot water heater I suppose. Just thinking to save some energy
over the life of the plumbing (and not run out of hot water as fast as
otherwise would be the case).
Karl
_______________________________________
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Hot_water_heat_recycling_unit.jpg
I installed one like this a number of years ago.
It really only works with the shower. As the hot water runs down the
drain, it warms the cold water in the coils wrapped around the main
stack drain.
The maker recommended it for feeding the cold water in to the hot water
tank. They subsequently said it was slightly more efficient if it fed
the whole system so that it was warming all of the water feeding the
shower and not just the hot water side. I have thought about hooking the
drain line from the dishwasher into it too so that the hot water being
pumped out of the dishwasher would also warm the stack. Not sure how
well that might work given that I doubt the dishwasher is taking in new
hot water at the same time that it is pumping out the old water. Same
with the washing machine. Given the washer is in the basement, it would
require a pump to move the water up to the ceiling level so probably not
worth the effort to try to make that happen.
I have no idea whether it saves much energy. The primary theory was that
it made your hot water tank act as though it was a bigger tank so one
would not run out of hot water quite as quickly.
I have checked the temperatures in and out while someone is using the
shower and it certainly does boost the cold water temperature. I do not
recall exactly how much so I won't guess for the purposes of this post.
My recollection is that there is also a variance in terms of how well it
does depending on how cold the incoming water is. I suppose it might
also depend on how warm the person in the shower likes the water so my
guess in that regard might be a bit unscientific.
I think I paid something like $300 by the time I got it installed as I
bought end caps that converted it from copper to ABS and soldered them
on and then glued the assembly into the ABS main stack.
It has been there for years and is totally maintenance free so over
time, one would think it should earn back the cost.
RB
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
