How to save water and electricity in residential buildings

Showers use a considerable amount of water. For your next residential project, here’s how smart showers can significantly cut your building’s water and energy use.

Showers use a considerable amount of water. For your next residential project, here’s how smart showers can significantly cut your building’s water and energy use.

Although 70% of the planet’s surface is covered in water, less than 1% is available for human use. And as the global population grows, so does the demand for clean, safe freshwater in residential dwellings across the world.

According to the EU, which over the past 30 years has helped to substantially improve water quantity and quality across its member states, improving efficiency in water usage is a top priority. While private dwellings account for just over 10% of water usage in Europe, ensuring water conservation in our homes is an important step to take to preserve our precious resources in the future.

The future of low-consumption residential buildings

More and more residential buildings will demand energy efficiency in every aspect of the house, both to ensure the sustainable usage of resources and to reduce overall consumption costs.

With a continuously growing population, urbanisation and challenging effects of climate change, buildings of the future need to be prepared to operate efficiently despite limited water supplies.

Make a difference with the right shower

In planning low-consumption residential buildings, the choice of the right shower set plays a vital role. They are the third-largest users of water indoors and are the place, we use 66% of all our hot water.

We use 66% of all our hot water in the shower.

This wastes valuable resources and leads to high electricity costs for the consumer and the building as a whole. By taking smart bathroom installations into account from the start, architects and project planners can build the foundation for a resource-efficient use of water and electricity in their building projects.

The promise of smart, low-flow shower faucets

With homes getting smarter, our showers do too. But what is a smart shower head and how can smart, low-flow fixtures help private homes reduce water and electricity use? Here’s what you need to know for your next building project.

What is a low-flow shower head?

Shower heads are measured by flow, which is the number of litres of water that is delivered per minute.

The water-saving technology of low-flow shower heads controls and restricts the volume of water flowing through the shower. This can help cut water consumption by half, while still providing the comfort of a full shower experience.

Architects and planners can choose between a range of advanced and elegant low-flow products, which are specifically designed to match different interior styles and reduce water consumption through simple low-flow options.

In case you’re looking for more guidance on finding the right water-saving hand shower for your project, you can find more info in our guide.

Save water with smart shower heads

The advanced technologies of smart showers allow users to track their shower habits and adjust their water consumption to their preferences as they shower.

The new Oras digital hand shower comes with a handy screen that measures consumption and temperature in real-time.

Digital hand shower can help users save water by giving real-time feedback on their shower habits.

Reduce the building’s overall energy consumption

One minute under a hot shower consumes the same amount of electricity needed to power lights in a home for a day. This is a large share of our everyday energy consumption.

Choosing the right shower set can easily reduce energy consumption. By providing a low-flow shower head, users are enabled to shorten their shower time and can track their consumption.                                      

At the same time, no additional electricity is needed. The Oras digital hand shower is fully powered by water and requires no batteries for the system to run smoothly. This will help substantially reduce the building’s overall energy consumption and electricity costs.

As our climate changes and resources deplete, every drop of water we use counts. That’s why more and more water-saving and energy-efficient solutions are available to the project market. For future residential building projects, consider how smart, low-flow shower heads can play a role in saving resources and keeping costs down.