Heat recovery system for mixer showers

jackieblack

Have just had a new EPC (rating A 118) and one of the two suggested improvements is heat recovery system for mixer showers

I've never heard of these - does anyone have one? Do they work well? Are the worth the cost of installing?

TIA

MattMattMattUK

Waste Water Heat Recovery (WWHR), they effectively run the cold supply for the shower through a heat exchanger connected to the waste water pipe. They cost £1,000-4,000 depending on how your pipes run, they cannot be installed in every property (especially flats) due to pipe routing. The break even point is 3-12 years depending on how much the shower gets used, length of shower (they work less well for short showers, better for long ones). Personally I would not bother with a retrofit, only if I was completely rebuilding a bathroom or building a home/bathroom from scratch.

squirrelpie

As said, they're complicated to install as a retrofit and fairly expensive. How effective they are depends on how you use your shower and its geometry, so do a lot of research before thinking about buying and installing one. Personally I didn't bother and wouldn't again.

jackieblack

Thank you both, that was the general feeling I was getting

According to the EPC that and Solar thermal are the only two things we could do to improve the rating apparently, but only by one point each - the expense far outweighs the benefit

FreeBear

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81996913#Comment_81996913

Another factor to consider is how the water is heated in the first place. If you have a combi boiler, WWHR is not going to save you much (think pennies if that).

If you are trying to improve energy efficiency, there are far better things you can do.

matelodave

My EPC also suggested that a shower heat recovery system would save me money and improve my EPC by 1 point cost me around £600-750 and save me £30 a year.

It didn't take into account that we live in a bungalow, the mixer unit is in the loft and that all the pipework is concealed in the loft. The plumbing for the shower waste is obviously underneath the shower tray, so the waste plumbing is below that and we have underfloor heating which makes it even harder to try and retrofit.

According to City Plumbing just the heat recovery unit is £650 not including all the plumbing that would be needed. Possibly a thought if you are doing a complete bathroom refit but even then you'd only save a miniscule amount compared with the capital cost

The EPC also included other unsuitable and costly improvements which would take around 25-30 years to pay back.

QrizB

According to the EPC that and Solar thermal are the only two things we could do to improve the rating

Solar thermal is also a poor economic option for many. Most people are better off filling that roof space with grid-tied PV.

jackieblack

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81997221#Comment_81997221

We also live in a bungalow with underfloor heating, I did have doubts about how easy it would be to retrofit - I suspected not easy at all

This thread has been useful as it confirmed everything I was thinking, thank you all

jackieblack

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81997234#Comment_81997234

Indeed - that's exactly what we've done :D