Showersave urges housebuilders to look beyond hot water savings

Waste Water Heat Recovery (WWHR) could help developers optimise heat pump and cylinder sizing, reduce peak electricity demand and unlock wider cost savings across new-build developments.

As housebuilders prepare for the Future Homes and Buildings Standards (FHBS), Showersave is urging specifiers to consider the wider benefits of reducing domestic hot water demand when designing more efficient new-build homes.

With 200,000 units already installed across the UK and Europe, Showersave technology recovers heat from shower waste water to preheat incoming cold water, reducing the energy needed to deliver hot water without any change in occupant behaviour.

As homes become more energy efficient and increasingly reliant on electricity, this demand reduction could have implications well beyond hot water consumption. It could create opportunities to specify smaller heat pumps and hot water cylinders, ease space constraints in compact homes and reduce the structural demands associated with installing large, water-filled tanks on upper floors.

Tony Gordon, Managing Director of Showersave, believes this broader role needs to be better understood by housebuilders and their technical teams.

“Showersave needs to be seen as an enabler of better heating and hot water system design, rather than simply a product that saves energy from showering,” he explains. “By reducing demand, we can create opportunities to optimise heat pump and hot water cylinder sizing, reduce peak electricity demand and potentially save developers money across an entire development.

“When you’re specifying systems for tens or hundreds of homes, even relatively small savings per plot can add up to a significant difference.”

There may also be benefits at development level. As homes increasingly rely on electricity for heating, hot water and vehicle charging, managing peak demand will become an important consideration for developers and those responsible for site infrastructure.

For housebuilders currently developing their FHBS specifications, a broader perspective is particularly important. Removing demand-reduction technologies too early in the design process could mean overlooking opportunities to optimise the wider system, with potential implications for both capital and running costs.

“Compliance is only part of the picture,” Tony adds. “We need to understand how all the components of a home work together, rather than sizing each system in isolation. Reducing energy demand should be part of that conversation from the outset.”

“The opportunity is to help deliver better-designed homes that are more efficient to build and run, and we want developers and social housing providers to consider these whole-system benefits before making final specification decisions.”

Showersave has a UK-wide team providing technical support and project-specific advice to housebuilders and specifiers, helping them assess how its systems can contribute to the requirements of individual developments.

To find out more, visit www.showersave.com, call 028 9334 4488 or email sales@showersave.com.