See wastewater heat recovery in action at the Energy Show in Dublin

The Recoup system recovers up to 68% of waste heat from showers by extracting heat from water that flows down the drain. 

Recoup’s Kieron Dudley told Passive House Plus that while wastewater heat recovery is well established in some countries, like the Netherlands and Canada, it is relatively new to Ireland. But he says that use of the product is now growing in the UK, where it is being increasingly used on large housing developments because of the energy savings — and improvements to SAP scores — that it delivers for a relatively small cost. 

“It ticks all the boxes for the end user — its has very high efficiency, it’s cost effective, it’s future-proofed, and it delivers very high SAP scores,” he said. 

Stephen Wooldridge of Barratt Developments, one of Recoup’s major clients, said: “The Recoup Pipe+ HE is by far the most innovative product within our supply chain, also sitting comfortably from a commercial and customer acceptance perspective. The technology sits squarely within our ‘fit & forget’ ethos which we feel is essential for not just giving CO2 savings in theory, but delivering real benefit in reduced CO2, and reduced bills, for our customers.”

Kieron Dudley told Passive House Plus that product is ideal for low energy and passive houses because it tackles the one form of heating energy use not affected by insulation or airtightness measures — domestic hot water consumption.

With the Recoup system, hot water that goes down the drain either clings to the side of the patented Recoup pipe exchanger or drips on to a patented coiled copper exchanger. The heat transfer from the outgoing hot to the incoming cold allows a temperature increase of around 15 degrees. The pre-heated cold feed then feeds the shower mixer, boiler and or hot water cylinder. 

A recent report by the UK’s National House Building Council Foundation concluded that waste water heat recovery technology could help to reduce household CO2 emissions by 7%. Performance test data for the Recoup pipe system is available under SAP Appendix Q, and the technology can be used to improve a building’s performance in the Dwelling Energy Assessment Procedure (DEAP) or the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP). 

Kieron Dudley said that the system can boost a property’s energy rating by between 3 and 9 per cent, making it popular with housing developers  “It gives you the same benefit as a standard solar thermal array, but at 25% of the cost,” he says. 

The Recoup system is suitable for both new built and retrofit in residential settings, as well as commercial, hospitality and leisure buildings. The system is discrete and does not require any interaction or planned maintenance from the user. 

You can see the Recoup system at the Highway Wholesalers stand (A12) at the SEAI Energy Show, which takes place on Wednesday and Thursday March 25 & 26 at the RDS in Dublin. For more information on Recoup, visit www.hwl.ie. 

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