Increasing the Performance and Reducing the Energy Use of Domestic and Commercial Shower Systems

Showers are used every day by most people and the basic technology is highly inefficient, using far more heated water than is necessary. Kelda Showers have developed a technology that reduces water use by 58% and electricity consumption by 58% whilst maintaining the feel of a powerful showering experience.

The novelty of the technology is to apply widely used air+water atomization technology in the gas turbine sector to the domestic and commercial shower market. Whilst much of the basic knowledge of these atomizer types is known performance criteria is different, in that fine atomization is not desired because of the problems of excessive spray cooling by the co-flowing air.

The project will advance the technology through fundamental research in three key areas :

1. Atomizer Design : The basic geometry will be optimised to provide "cleaner" sprays with a more uniform drop diameter distribution of larger drops and reduced intermittency of the resulting spray.
2. Spray Plume Analysis : Shower Performance relies on a spray impact at a defined point downstream, and the spray transport, turbulent diffusion and cooling all need to be better understood to refine the atomizer design itself.
3. Noise Reduction : Currently the atomization process and the shower head geometry produce excessive noise and this will be reduced through understanding of the atomization process.

The work will make use of advanced manufacturing facilities currently being commissioned at the University of Southampton. The project will be experimentally lead with significant theoretical and computational elements.