Hydrao, the connected smart shower
Hydrao is a smart and connected showerhead developed by Smart & Blue, a startup present at this year’s Cleantech Forum in Lyon.
The principle behind the device is simple: the shower head is equipped with a light that changes colour depending on the amount of water consumed. It changes from green when less than 10 litres have been consumed to blue (- 20 L), purple (- 30 L) and red (- 50 L) before flashing in case of high consumption (+ 50 L).
Garbiel Della Monica, CEO of Smart & Blue, the company behind Hydrao, wants to raise awareness of water consumption in our modern society. The technology features a mobile application which can collect and access data at any time, thereby keeping an eye on the evolving consumption levels.
For now, the shower head is available at a special price of €79 instead of €89, and Gabriel Della Monica claims that savings of 20 litres of water per shower equate to saving €250 over the year. Della Monica admits that the product is not a miracle cure, and requires some investment on the part of the end-users, not solely in a financial sense but also a changing of habits. However, the concept has attracted a lot of interest, and the brand has recorded nearly 100,000 pre-orders from both individuals and distributors.
At present, 3,000 units have been produced and delivered so far, and Smart & Blue intend to develop a second version of Hydrao accompanied by software with new features such as a temperature sensor. The company are also of the opinion that, in the long-term, widespread installation and use of their products will help gather extremely valuable data on water consumption and how our bathing habits must change.
