Did you know it’s possible to recover 40-60% wasted heat from showering? Most households are simply pouring that hot water down the drain, when they could be harvesting much of the heat energy. On Wednesday, June 10, we’ll dive into drain water heat recovery (DWHR) and how it can pair with a heat pump water for even better efficiency and savings. Join us to hear from some of the leading DWHR experts and manufacturers in an exciting roundtable presentation and discussion.

Panelists:

Marc Fontaine, co-founder of EcoInnovation Technologies Inc.
With a solid foundation as a trained mechanical engineer, Marc has dedicated the last 15 years to manufacturing and product development, specializing in Drain Water Heat Recovery applications and implementation. He has actively contributed to the advancement of industry standards by sitting on various code development committees for the Canadian Standards Association. Additionally, he has participated as a stakeholder on the National Code Council for Energy Efficiency, advocating sustainable practices and energy-efficient solutions. His extensive expertise and commitment to innovation position him as a leader in the field, driving forward-thinking solutions for a sustainable future.

Gerald Van Decker, President and CEO, RenewABILITY Energy Inc.
Gerald founded RenewABILITY Energy Inc. in July 2000. He is the Power-Pipe® inventor and driver for the successful market expansion of the Drain Water Heat Recovery markets across North America and Europe. He has published on Drain Water Heat Recovery in the ASHRAE Journal and has been a key contributor to the CSA B55 Standards as well as drafting the Building Code language and energy savings algorithms for many jurisdictions. Previously Gerald served as Research Engineer for Active Solar Technologies and for Edgetech I.G., former SuperSpacer® Manufacturer. He also worked in Sweden for the R&D arm of Sweden’s largest Power Utility conducting Solar Water Heating R&D.

Joe D Rendall, Associate Research and Development Staff, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Dr. Joseph Rendall is an R&D associate staff member in the Multifunctional Equipment Integration Group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Dr. Rendall is the research advisor for the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center’s Residential Water Heating and Appliance Laboratory. He has also developed a heat exchanger technology that was a finalist for an R&D 100 award. Dr. Rendall is an expert in thermally stratified water and its impact on water heating, specifically regarding heat pump water heater efficiency. He develops new water heating and appliance technologies that use vapor and non-vapor compression technologies to reduce energy consumption, carbon footprint, and costs.

Peter Grant, Senior Scientific Engineering Association, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
In his role at LBNL, Peter has developed VOLTTRON-based platform simultaneously controlling lights and facades and created a library of machine learning forecasters for microgrid deployment. Peter has multiple years experience in drain water heat recovery at Beyond Energy, including performing Title 24 CASE analysis on drain water heat recovery devices, creating simulation models for unitary heat pump water heaters and a prototype gas absorption heat pump water heater, and evaluating the performance of advanced load shifting controls in multifamily heat pump water heater installations. In his prior position at Frontier Energy, he worked on load shifting control for HPWHs and performed analyses on drain water heat recovery devices and compact hot water distribution systems.

Moderator: Noah Gabriel, Senior Project Analyst, New Buildings Institute
Noah is a Senior Project Analyst at New Buildings Institute working within the Building Innovation team.