Gravity Film heat exchanger or ECO-GFX
The ECO-GFX is a thermal recovery system with no moving parts, requires no electricity to operate, and no maintenance. Waste hot water is literally money down the drain. The ECO-GFX recovers this money by capturing the heat from the hot water being dumped down the drain and placing it back into your cold water with no contamination because the waste water simply transfers its heat to the incoming cold water through two walls of high grade copper pipe.
The ECO-GFX is an excellent choice for LEED certified buildings. It requires no additional energy to use and can quickly add points in the Optimize Energy Performance category. For more information on LEED certification, check the US Green Building Council web site.
Do not accept imitations, the ECO-GFX is made from pure copper and does not contain lead or other toxic metals. The ECO-GFX passes all plumbing codes and is safe for use in all potable water supplies
- Up to 80% heat recovery
- Type L copper for high thermal transfer
- Self cleaning, no maintenance
- Completely passive, no moving parts, pumps, motors, valves, etc
- 100% copper drain pipe results in no chemical or organic build up
- Full diameter drain ensures equal draining results as standard PVC drain pipe
- Plumbing code compliance and double wall construction
- 50 - 60 years life expectancy
- Cost effective, pay back usually in as little as three years
- Increases hot water tank recovery speed (more hot water faster)
- Increases solar hot water heating efficiency
- Increases life of hot water tank
The ECO-GFX comes in many different configurations and can be used in Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Institutional applications.
The only requirement is that the ECO-GFX unit MUST be installed vertically. If it is not vertical, it will not work. Therefore, the installation location will need to have a length of vertical drain pipe the same length as the GFX unit, plus about 6 inches on top and bottom. See detailed installation instructions for more information.
ECO-GFX Technical Information and pricing
The ECO-GFX works on the principle of adhesion. Water, by nature, adheres to the walls of a vertical pipe run instead of falling through the center of the pipe. This happens in any pipe, anywhere, no matter what the pipe is made of. If the pipe is metal, heat from the water is transferred to the metal pipe wall until the pipe is the same temperature as the water. If the vertical section of pipe has a heat exchanger attached to the outside of it, the heat from the metal pipe is conducted away to be reused.
Sun Volt Solar is a dealer for ECO-GFX products. We sell and install the following GFX models (installation can be a part of
a larger solar installation, or just the ECO-GFX unit itself):
| ECO-GFX Model | drain in/out | fresh water connectors | Unit Length | Efficiency at 2.25g/min |
Pressure drop (psi) |
Applications | MSRP (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S3-40 | 3" | 3/4" | 40" | 58% | <2 | Whole house application low pressure drop, high volume water | $568.51 |
| S3-60 | 3" | 3/4" | 60" | 68% | <2 | Whole house application low pressure drop, high volume water | $744.34 |
| S4-40 | 3" | 3/4" | 40" | 66% | <3 | Whole house application low pressure drop, high volume water | $801.00 |
| S4-60 | 4" | 3/4" | 60" | 73% | <3 | Whole house application low pressure drop, high volume water | $1015.30 |
| G3-40 | 3" | 1/2" | 40" | 60% | <5 | Effective on preheating coldwater to shower | $520.13 |
| G4-40 | 4" | 1/2" | 40" | 67% | <7 | Effective on preheating coldwater to shower | $666.28 |
** G Models - 1/2" Type-L coils on Type-DWV copper tube.
*** Nominal Drainwater Heat Recovery (DHR) Efficiency for balanced flow near 2.25 gallons per minute (gpm).
**** Nominal effectiveness for coil flow rate of 1 gpm and a flooded-tube flow-rate greater than 5 gpm.
All prices are list prices in US dollars. Because of the volatile nature of copper prices, the listed prices are subject to change without notice. Contact us for a parts and installation quote.