Newcomer Gadget: Self-powered Smart Meter for the Shower Cuts Water and Energy Consumption by 23%
Zurich, Switzerland (PRWEB) December 15, 2013 -- The average household uses 2000 kWh of energy every year only for water heating, making water heating the second largest energy end use in the home. The smart meter amphiro a1 increases awareness of this energy during the shower process. It displays water and energy consumption for every individual shower – right at the point of use and in real-time. That way, users can keep track of their resource consumption and develop a better sense for their daily carbon footprint. A study with 700 Swiss households supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and the utility company ewz documents average savings of 440 kWh of energy and 2,250 gallons of drinking water per household per year: The smart shower meter outperforms the energy savings of typical in-home displays by a factor of 5 – at 10% of the cost. It is the world’s first self-powered smart meter that harvests its energy from the water flow thanks to a small built-in turbine. It fits into all handheld shower heads and can be installed in a few minutes without any tools.
Amphiro announces a crowdfunding initiative for new products
Amphiro now plans to take its product to the next level and therefore proposes two new variants of amphiro a1. Both variants feature the same hardware as the amphiro a1, but the display content has been tailored for two specific user groups to satisfy frequent customer requests.
The first new variant, amphiro a1 control, provides users with even more information. Just like the original amphiro a1, the amphiro a1 control displays energy and water consumption, current energy efficiency class, and water temperature. In contrast to the original device, however, amphiro a1 control comes without the polar bear animation. Instead, it displays the duration of the shower and a progress bar that compares the current shower with the average consumption of the last ten showers.
The second variant, amphiro a1 arctic, focuses more on visual content (a large polar bear animation) than on numbers. At the beginning, a polar sits in a comfortable polar setting. Over the course of a (long) shower, the arctic world progressively melts away until the polar bear is swimming in the ocean with a life saver. The device also displays shower duration. This variant is perfect for kids and for those who prefer visual content to numbers.
For more information please visit the website http://www.amphiro.com. The crowdfunding campaign can be accessed on http://www.igg.me/at/amphiro.
Liliane Ableitner, Amphiro AG, http://amphiro.com/, +41 +41446328919, [email protected]
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