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Greenbuilding Archive for June 2000
367 messages, last added Tue Nov 26 17:24:10 2002

[Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: GBlist: Re: Drainwater heat recovery (DHR)



Good morning Carmine.
Thank you for your latest email DHR comments.
 
In regards to: "I've been asked to explain the differences between
DrainGain  and GFX by many web-surfers"; the difference between
WaterWatts** and DrainGain*, and, GFX, lies in the drainwater heat
exchangers. In WaterWatts and DrainGain, the drainwater heat exchangers
operate like a diode, that is, they have one-way-only heat transfer and so
can have heat storage for use with 'batch' hot water uses. 

With WaterWatts and DrainGain, heat is removed from any and all warmer
drainwater by heat transfer through copper tubing to the colder, thermal
storage water in the enclosing reservoir. But then, if colder drainwater
flows, that same hotter thermal storage water is unaffected, that is, there
is no loss of stored heat. 

In the case of WaterWatts, this is accomplished using the very same central
copper drainpipe as GFX (not wrapped with tubing and with diode effect
added) all housed in a plastic reservoir. WaterWatts connects in-line with
a drainpipe exactly like GFX does. 

DrainGain (for large hot water users) has a separator ('Xcluder', patented)
in the drainpipe and a seperate tank for the heat exchangers and thermal
storage. It is larger and more expensive, but can be made to meet any
performance demand. Its diode is effect is due to shape and location of
dranwater heat exchanger, flat spiral and at the bottom of the reservoir.

Being aware of patent law, you will appreciate that I cannot publicly
disclose the diode invention of WaterWatts (world patent rights are still
available), except under a signed Confidentiality Agreement (available on
request) with those who 'need to know'.

I don't have the hard data, or to be truthful, the quick comprehension of
your figures that you rely on for your thermal storage objections, however,
I understand your position re a competitive technology. To me its
intuitive, that, all else being equal, the more volume of drainwater that
one can remove heat from, the better the net results will be, no matter how
measured. 

I'm an inventor. I'm not not a researcher, engineer, scientist, marketer,
etc. (although I do a lot of each) so my efforts are at solving problems
with invention. Someone else with the smarts, time, money, experience, and
enthusiasim will carry it to commercialization and make the lion's share of
the profit. The marketplace will ultimately choose whats best.

I trust I have addressed your concerns? If not, I look forward to
additional discussion.

Regards,

Winston MacKelvie
http://www.inventure.ca

*(patented #5,736,059; available at:
http://www.patents.ibm.com/patquery.html)
** patent pending.


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