About

“Low-grade” heat (in the range 25-80°c) in the form of a waste-water stream discharged into sewers, is an everyday by-product of European homes.

It is generated from a variety of domestic appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers, shower units, baths, sinks etc. In the EU, there’s an estimated 58 million dishwashers, 232 million washing machines and 63 million shower units, with at least 90% of the input energy going into heating the water for these appliances. This equates to approximately 26 500 terra Joules of thermal energy. To date, this source of energy from waste-water has been largely ignored and not recovered/recycled.

Our solution is to develop a low grade heat exchanger for use in the domestic sector to recover over 40% of the heat energy from this waste water to supplement domestic boilers.

In so doing we aim to reduce the overall energy consumption of domestic dwellings by 7%, saving over 1000 kWh per dwelling per year or expressed as a European total saving of 10 billion kWh of energy at a target market penetration of 6%.

The plumbing sector (with over 150 000 SME's) needs to develop new and innovative, added value products with enhanced features to help them achieve the environmental targets that are being thrust upon them.

The predicted sales for the technology could also help to create a significant amount of jobs across Europe.