Ilaria Rosella Pagliaro ThermoDrain, an innovative Canadian system to recover heat from gray water and reduce energy costs by up to 40%
@ThermoDrain Québec – Facebook
It should be practiced routinely, rather than confining it to the saving of water during summer or cuts in electricity during winter. Several creative ways can lead people towards less consumption of energy in their homes, which will reduce utility bills and, at the same time, lessen the environmental impacts too. A latest such invention is ThermoDrain, invented in Canada to recover heat from gray water, especially from the hot water waste originating from showers and sinks.
ThermoDrain: Canadian innovation for gray water heat recovery
Developed by founders Daniel Beauchemin and Marc Fontaine of EcoInnovation Technologies, ThermoDrain was designed to combat the waste of hot water, which when drained away often still carries a lot of energy with it. The device features a ¾-inch copper tube wrapped around a central drainage tube, also fabricated from copper. ThermoDrain replaces a part of a shower drainpipe, where the drained water transfers its heat into the central tube that then serves to heat up the incoming cold water. Copper is used due to excellent conductivity, which is a factor in the system’s efficiency.
Save Up to 40% on water heating costs
According to the inventors, the device can reduce energy consumption for water heating by as much as 40%, which consequently means an approximate 5% reduction of all consumed energy.
This system is particularly well-suited to households that rely on tank-style electric water heaters; its effectiveness is reduced with on-demand models. Ingenuous and effective as it is, ThermoDrain has yet to succeed in making significant inroads into the marketplace. Provinces such as Ontario and Manitoba have already moved to incorporate the utilization of this device into their building codes.
