Hamwells e-Shower rains down water and energy savings

Hamwells e-Shower rains down water and energy savings

In the move toward sustainable homes, the progress of showers has been more of a trickle. Ten minutes in a traditional shower can use up to 100 l (22 gal) of water. The Hamwells e-Shower, however, promises high pressure and volume, while saving up to 90 percent on water and 80 percent on energy.

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Hamwells was founded only this year, with the aim of building a shower that could make significant savings on water and energy, while still providing the comfort of a traditional shower. The startup says that it found shower heat recovery systems to be inefficient and wasteful of water, low-flow showers to waste water and recycling showers to require expensive maintenance.

In addition to saving water and energy, the firm wanted its shower to be "cool," easy-to-use, hygienic and self-cleaning. The key to achieving this was creating a design that would reuse water, filtering it as it went.

The e-Shower has two settings. The "Classic shower" setting uses and delivers water at a rate of 7 l (1.5 gal) per minute. When the "Refresh Cycles" setting is selected, however, it is able to deliver 15 l (3.3 gal) of water per minute while using only 1.5 l (0.3 gal) per minute. To do this, a stopper is lowered into the run-off reservoir and sucks water back around the shower's system to be filtered, purified and reused.

As is seemingly the case with every new product today, the shower is Wi-Fi connected. This does provide a few useful functions, though. Users are able to stream music into the shower, water usage and savings can be tracked via an accompanying iOS/Android app and it's possible for remote monitoring and maintenance to be carried out.

Water usage and savings are gamified, with the e-Shower showing a glowing green tree when more water is saved. Hamwells says that, in the future, the shower will also be able to communicate with the heating system of a user's home.

Among the other features of the shower, Hamwells promises easy installation (it can be submerged into the floor and built into the wall, positioned against a wall or in a corner). It also promises minimal maintenance requirements, without a need for filter replacements.

The e-Shower was launched at TechCrunch Disrupt London earlier this month. It will cost €2,950 (US$3,200) and will begin shipping worldwide from July next year.