nir-vana innovation network

Around one third of the total water consumption in private households, hotels or sports facilities is needed just for showers and personal hygiene - a very large amount. Several statistics show that the second highest energy consumption (after the clear no.1 - heating) in above mentioned buildings is based on warm water. "Normal" solutions to reduce the warm water consumption (e.g. "eco" shower heads) have a major disadvantage: less water also means less showering comfort. This technology was developed to reduce the consumption of warm water in showers down to 7 l/min and handwash basins to 5 l/min without any noticeable loss of comfort for the users. The mini-turbine is using the physical "venturi - effect": By narrowing the diameter of the water flow channel in the form of a funnel, the water in it is greatly accelerated. This creates a vacuum, which causes air to be drawn in via a bypass which is mixed with the water. The volume of the strongly swirled, air-enriched water is thus increased and accelerated. This results in the effect that the warm water consumption is reduced up to 50% percent and the water pressure = comfort of showering is maintained. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the water flow rate in showers down to 7 litre per minute with still high pressure - a result which is not possible with common technologies known on the market. Based on a proven calculation tool, the savings on costs, water, energy and CO2 can be calculated for each specific object. The calculator takes into account the specific assumptions, like number of showers, actual flow rate, assumed saving with this technology, average time for a shower, number of persons using the shower, energy source used for warm water production, cost of energy/wastewater etc. in order to show the realistic saving potential for each application. The technology can be used for all showers used in hotels, private households, student- and elderly homes, health institutes, cruise ships, industrial plant, sports facilities, etc. There is a long-time experience with this technology as far as many customers worldwide (hotels, sports institutes, private persons, etc.) have it in use for many years - first projects were realized in 2015 and actually more than 60.000 units have been sold worldwide.