GFX Residential Installation

 

HOW MUCH MONEY CAN GFX SAVE ME?

If you wash clothes in cold water and take showers instead of baths, then 80% of your water-heating bill could be for hot shower water. Installing a GFX system rated at 50% efficiency, will then result in a 40% drop in your total water-heating cost. If your home has an electric water heater, it may be your single largest expense for electricity. Water heater labels provide estimates of these costs, by accounting for fuel costs, electric rates, and energy factors. Also, GFX could save you the cost of purchasing and/or maintaining a secondary water heater by tripling the First Hour Rating of your existing electric water heater for showering.

 

HOW MUCH DO I SPEND FOR HOT SHOWER WATER?

If your electric rate is 8.6-cents/kWh and your electric water heater has an energy factor of 86%, you now spend 10-cents/kWh to heat water. With a lo-flow showerhead delivering 2.25 gpm, 3 daily-12-minute showers will cost you about $1.00; jumping to $1.85 per day with a hi-flow showerhead delivering 4.25 gpm.

 

HOW MUCH MONEY COULD GFX SAVE ME?

If you install a GFX system rated at 50% efficiency you could save: $180 a year with a lo-flow showerhead; $340 a year with a hi-flow showerhead.

 

WILL GFX HELP REDUCE AIR POLLUTION?

The U.S. EPA's Energy Star Program promotes the conservation of electricity because saving $1 billion annually can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 20 million tons. Adding GFX to 6 million all-electric homes will reduce these emissions by more than 20 million tons!

 

IS INSTALLATION DIFFICULT?

Not at all. As illustrated below, the Model F-2305S heat exchanger simply replaces a vertical section of drain line and the incoming cold water is rerouted to flow up its coil. It's an ideal do-it-yourself project. Shorter models are available for homes lacking the 60" vertical drop required for Models F-2305S and F-601.

Larger version (99K)

Anatomy of the modern home plumbing system with GFX added to preheat all incoming cold water for best efficiency.

 

 

HOW MANY UNITS MUST I INSTALL FOR A 2-BATHROOM HOUSE?

For a house having one two bath/showers, two bathroom sinks, kitchen sink, dishwasher, clothes washer, one Model F- 2305S will do the job at normal cold water supply pressures. The designers of The Toronto Healthy House elected to install two Model F-601's for higher efficiency, since their higher coil-pressure-drop was not a problem because a pressure-boosting pump had been installed for another purpose.

 

HOW DOES GFX WORK?

The "HEART" of GFX is a special heat exchanger made from a standard DWV copper drain pipe, surrounded by a coil of copper water tube. When hot shower drain water enters the drain pipe, its inner wall becomes coated with a thin falling-film. Falling-films hold the key to GFX's high efficiency and compact size, because their heat can be captured very effectively by water flowing up the coil. Typically, about 80% of the heat leaving a showerhead is carried by drain water, so there's plenty for GFX to capture and recycle. Incoming cold water can be preheated by up to 37-degrees F in the wintertime with the high efficiency Model F-2601P, while the drain water is cooled by an equal amount; leaving little energy to be wasted in the sewer. Actual energy-savings will depend upon the shower flow rate, plumbing system, and type of GFX system installed. Six standard heat exchanger models are available for recycling 40% to 75% of the heat carried down the drain. Preheated water may be fed to the entire house for best efficiency. It can also be fed to just the water heater and/or the cold water input of a shower. Far less hot water is needed to maintain a comfortable shower if lots of preheated water is mixed with hot water at the shower!

 

HAS GFX UNDERGONE THIRD-PARTY TEST AND EVALUATION?

GFX was approved by Underwriters Laboratory (UL) under a U.S. DOE Grant which was awarded after four technical evaluations spanning several years. It was evaluated a fifth time by Arthur D. Little Inc. in 1996 prior to being recommended for a new DOE program. It was approved by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) for its 21st Century Townhouse Project and by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) for its Toronto Healthy House Program. In addition to many years of DOE-funded field-testing GFX underwent many other third-party evaluations; including several by electric utilities and by the California Energy Commission (CEC) prior to approving a GFX-Test-Plan for California Title 24 Energy Credits. It has also been evaluated by conservation-minded editors and publishers prior to publishing articles such as:

 

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© 2002 Waterfilm Energy, Inc.