Hot water tank Waste Water Heat Recovery’s operating principle is the pre-heating of incoming main water on its way to the water heater with heat recaptured from warm outgoing drain water. Application Appliances for providing a more-or-less constant supply of hot water are variously known as water heaters, boilers, heat exchangers, clarifiers, or geysers depending on whether they are heating potable or non-potable water, in domestic or industrial use, their energy source, and in which part of the world they are found. In domestic installations, potable water heated for uses other than space heating is sometimes known as domestic hot water (DHW).