HANSGROHE, a leading manufacturer of bathroom fittings and showerheads, is intensifying its focus on environmental protection through the continuous development and introduction of new climate protection and water-saving technologies, such as the EcoSmart and Pontos AquaCycle.

 “We combined all the activities of our brand Pontos, which focuses on water recycling and heat recovery from waste water, with those of our core brand Hansgrohe under one umbrella,” says Siegfried Gaensslen, CEO of Hansgrohe.

“Hansgrohe is undoubtedly one of the pioneers in the sanitation industry in matters relating to environmental protection,” he adds.

Water and energy-saving products already account for almost 25 per cent of the company’s total sales. These are mainly made from showers and mixers that are equipped with the EcoSmart technology.

“Enjoying water and making better use of it has long been a priority for us. We particularly focus on finding the right balance between saving water and providing comfort and convenience when showering and washing hands,” Gaensslen explains

The innovators in the Hansgrohe spray laboratory continuously tackle the challenge of combining comfort and an emotional experience of water with resource-conserving, effective use and perfect spray quality, while developing special water and energy-saving technologies.

Sophisticated functions concealed within the mixers and showers fitted with EcoSmart limit water usage reducing water consumption by up to 50 per cent as compared to conventional products. As this also means that less water needs to be heated, the EcoSmart technology helps save energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.

With a flow rate of only around six litres per minute, the Crometta 85 Green overhead and hand showers rank among the champion savers, closely followed by the EcoSmart models from the Hansgrohe shower lines Croma 100 and Raindance Air.

The large Raindance EcoSmart overhead and hand showers consume only around nine litres of water per minute. A special flow limiter within the shower flexibly reacts to the water pressure. If this is high, an O-ring decreases the size of the aperture, while at low pressure it increases it correspondingly and thus keeps the water consumption constant. Furthermore, the water jets are accelerated through the targeted addition of air before they are ejected so that a full shower spray with a notably larger volume can still be enjoyed despite the lower consumption.

Resource-conserving technology is employed in wash basin mixers where an aerator integrated into the mixer’s spout reduces the flow without impairing comfort.

“The Axor and Hansgrohe basin mixers only use up to five litres of water per minute – around a 30 per cent reduction from the average consumption level. The aerator simultaneously enriches the water with air, retains any suspended sediments, creates a voluminous yet soft jet and reduces the noise level,” he says.

To calculate savings, Hansgrohe has recently launched its online savings calculator which demonstrates the environmental benefits and cost savings offered by the EcoSmart technology.

Simple to use, the new tool displays water, energy and CO2 (carbon dioxide) savings and helps customers integrate care for the environment into everyday life. For sanitation, heating and air-conditioning professionals, it can be used to demonstrate the cost-saving potential offered by the EcoSmart technology.

To calculate savings, users have to select their desired product from three showers and mixers fitted with the EcoSmart technology and enter their consumption data, including the number of people in the household, the average time spent showering, the water rate and the type of energy used. The calculator displays the water and CO2 savings using the EcoSmart technology as compared to a conventional product, as well as the time it will take to amortise procurement costs.

Users can then print out their results together with a picture of the selected product and its serial number and take them to a dealer. The nearest Hansgrohe dealer can be found using the dealer locator below the savings calculator.

The savings calculator can be accessed at https://m.savings.hansgrohe.com/ and works on smartphones and tablets as well as regular laptop and desktop computers.

Meanwhile, Hansgrohe claims to be the world’s only mixer and shower manufacturer to offer multi-award-winning technology that recycles run-off water so that it can be reused with its Pontos AquaCycle.

“It all started with a simple idea,” says Gaensslen. “We wanted to treat shower and bath water so that instead of valuable drinking water, recycled water could be used for flushing the toilet, cleaning or watering gardens.”

Depending on consumption behaviour, water consumption and waste water volume are reduced by up to 50 per cent with Pontos AquaCycle. These systems act as compact recycling systems for ‘grey water’ – waste water from showers and bath tubs. Thanks to the needs-oriented layout of the systems, the grey water recycling experts offer individually tailored solutions for public or private use. The grey water is biologically/mechanically cleaned in several stages without any chemical additives.

Today, around 1,200 Pontos AquaCycle systems are in operation around the world. The users include numerous hotels in Germany, Belgium, the UK, Spain and Jordan. One of the largest systems in operation today recycles the shower water in the Absa Bank in Johannesburg/South Africa with a daily capacity of 45,000 litres. Another large system recycles a daily amount of 26,000 litres of shower water in the municipal swimming pool in Yerres, near Paris, France. The recycled water is used for filling road cleaning vehicles and for watering parks and public gardens.

The new Pontos systems make it possible to use rain water and the heat from the shower and bath waste water. The heat is extracted from the grey water through a heat exchanger module. The recovered heat (approximately 10 to 15 kWh per cu m) is fed back into the heat accumulator for the hot water preparation or heating system.

“The combination of heat recovery and grey water recycling therefore not only contributes to the ecological and economical sustainable use of water, it also reduces the heating energy requirement, which in turn reduces CO2 emissions.

Hansgrohe has flagship stores all across the GCC and the Middle East including Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.