A hand wash often takes just a few seconds. So short a time that in many cases, the hot water barely makes it to the tap before you're done. The result is a paradox: energy is used to keep the hot water ready, while some of the heat is never put to use.
In A Working Lab at the Chalmers area in Gothenburg, Akademiska Hus is therefore testing another principle together with Vyse tech: to heat the water locally, directly at the sink and only when the tap is opened.
"The interesting thing is that we are attacking an energy loss that is normally quite invisible. By testing the technology in a real property, we can measure both energy performance and water use and at the same time gain important knowledge about how the solution works in daily operations," says Andreas Hansson, Operations Technician at Akademiska Hus.
Heats water where it is used
The technology has been developed by Vyse tech and is based on a small flow-through heater that is mounted under the sink. Instead of hot water circulating in the building, cold water is led to the tap point and is only heated when the tap is opened.
The unit contains a heat exchanger in 3D-printed metal that quickly heats the water to about 35 degrees. The technology is combined with a low water flow of about 1.2 liters per minute.
This means that the user receives hot water after about three seconds while both water and energy use can be reduced.
"By moving the heating to the tap itself, we avoid a large part of the losses that otherwise occur on the way to the tap. At the same time, we want the solution to provide at least as good an experience for the person who uses it," says Simon Jerklind Dybeck, founder of Vyse tech.
A Working Lab as a test bed
The pilot project is being carried out in A Working Lab, Akademiska Hus' innovation arena on the Chalmers campus. Here, new solutions for the buildings and campuses of the future can be tested in a real environment before they are possibly scaled up.
During the test period, the solution has so far saved just over seven cubic meters of drinking water. The technology can also reduce energy consumption by reducing the need to continuously circulate hot water. Follow the pilot via the project's "dashboard" here.
The potential varies depending on the design of the property and existing installations. In buildings with long pipes and large heat losses, the benefits can be particularly great. In new construction, the technology can also create opportunities to simplify installations by reducing the need for traditional systems for hot water circulation.
"A Working Lab gives us the opportunity to test innovations in real life together with the companies that develop them. We get actual measurements and experience from our own operations, which provides a significantly better basis when assessing whether a solution is interesting to use in more properties," says Andreas Hansson.
The next step is continued development
The units are connected to enable monitoring, sustainability reporting and insights such as which toilets need cleaning efforts. Akademiska Hus and Vyse tech are now also investigating the possibility of integrating data from the units into Akademiska Hus' digital operating system.
The next step will be to continue evaluating the technology and investigate the possibilities of testing the solution on a larger scale and in more types of properties.
For Akademiska Hus, the project is an example of how its own property environment can be used as a test bed for new technology that contributes to more resource-efficient property management.
