The Sustainable Home Survey Company (SHS) is a leading community-focused energy
management assessment company and social incubator. To date, SHS’s management team has
delivered over 15 low carbon ventures and actively supports team members in identifying and
growing spin-out companies.
As an adjunct to its core business, SHS has identified a need for an innovative, low cost
solution to domestic hot water control –“The Hot Water Detective” (HWD). HWD is
designed to save energy on hot water heating and mitigate the risk of Legionnaires’ disease
through providing i) a cloud-based system for monitoring real-time hot water temperatures,
and ii) a UV light disinfection device for eradicating microbiological contamination.
In the UK, 14.3m homes have hot water storage tanks that are exposed to unnecessary
financial inefficiencies:
a) Significant loss of the water tanks’ thermal energy due to out-dated, non-digitized control
systems;
b) Maintaining higher than necessary water tank temperatures (~10°C higher) for mitigating
the risk of legionella bacteria - the average domestic hot water tank is kept at 65-70 °C.
c) Biennial water tank safety checks (average of £150/property) for rented properties –
protecting tenants from risk of legionella. From January 2015 Legionella risk mitigation is
mandatory for any private or social landlords (ACOP L8, Health & Safety at Work Act 1974)
HWD remotely monitors water temperatures to save up to £100 per year on energy bills
(through improved and more sensitive, real-time control), whilst mitigating the risk of
legionella to remove the need for water tank health and safety checks.
It is anticipated that successful deployment of this HWD system across the UK domestic
market has the potential to reduce annual domestic heating costs by £970m amongst
vulnerable tenants, save a further £650m/year for landlords through minimizing water tank
health and safety audits in rented sector, and deliver lifetime carbon savings of 1.97 mt CO2e