Freezing in the shower was once ...
After our first trip to Norway and Sweden it was clear that while it is a nice challenge to shower in the lake at 5 degrees outside temperature or with a submersible pump, we prefer a warm shower. In addition, washing dishes in the evening was always a bit of a challenge, as greases can only be persuaded to dissolve in warm detergent.
As an engineer, you quickly come up with the idea of using unused thermal energy. So there were two possible options:
1. The energy from the exhaust system via heating coil
2. The energy of the cooling water
Option 1 was quickly out of the race due to the effort and the relatively small amount of heat that can be transferred. In addition, the temperature of the catalyst would fall in a range that can damage it.
So it's good to use energy from the cooling water. For this we use the principle of the heat exchanger. We have installed a soldered 45kW plate heat exchanger and can use it to heat our shower or rinse water in the circuit while the engine is running or immediately after switching it off.
COMPONENTS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why a pressurized water pump?
We achieve the necessary delivery pressure of the water with the help of a pressure water pump with a pump output of 7L per minute. We have also placed it in the immediate vicinity of the heat exchanger in the engine compartment.
- very reliable
- High delivery rate
- Plug and play in the evening
- Fill the water can on the roof
With the help of the pump and the built-in pre-filter, we can now park near rivers or lakes and pump water directly into our water canisters on the roof. All connections have been equipped with Gardena connections for quick plug & play.
We used 2.5mm ² vehicle cable including a 30A relay for the cabling to relieve our pressure switch.
When choosing your hot water hose, you should choose a temperature-resistant and possibly food-grade EPDM hose.
MIXER
Why a mixed thermostat?
After we felt cooked during the first test shower because our water reached almost 70 ° C and therefore without a mixer it was only possible to pump the water in the circuit up to the desired temperature, we thought about how we can take a more relaxed shower.
The solution is a mixer that allows the water temperature to be set comfortably. Our mixer from Caleffi has different predefined water temperatures and is a HeavyDuty version. We split the water from the fresh water tank after the pump over a Y piece to separate cold and warm water.
