Determining the efficiency of local heat recycling wastewater based on a heat exchanger

RELEVANCE. The authors research the potential energy, economic and environmental effects of using local heat recovery from wastewater generated in showers. At the moment in Russia, almost all household wastewater is disposed of in sewer networks without the beneficial use of the heat that they possess. It is important to determine the effect of implementing this method of heat recovery, to identify and analyze the problems that prevent this from being done. THE PURPOSE. The purpose of the work is to determine the potential effect of using local heat recovery from wastewater generated in showers. METHODS. Based on a verified mathematical model of the heat exchanger, the energy effect from the individual use of the shower room is determined. A number of assumptions are applied to the heat consumption structure of an individual building and, based on available data on the average annual heat consumption of residential buildings in Moscow, the economic and environmental effect of energy-saving measures is calculated. RESULTS. Relative savings within the annual heat consumption of a building with a decentralized and centralized hot water supply system were 5,3% and 3,1%, respectively (64 and 37 GCal). Fuel economy amounted to: 9145 toe and 5227 toe for a building with a decentralized and centralized hot water supply system, respectively (14,5 and 8,5 thousand tons of CO 2 -eq). The payback period for energy-saving measures for the case of a decentralized hot water system based on an instantaneous electric water heater was 1,5 years. CONCLUSION. Local waste heat recovery makes it possible to obtain a significant energy and environmental effect within any locality, but at the moment there are no measures to support consumers implementing energy-saving measures. Currently, this method of heat recovery is of interest only to those consumers whose source of thermal energy for the needs of hot water supply is electricity.