On average, the French allow between 40 and 50 liters of water to flow per shower.
This in fact, within the home, makes it the first item of consumption of this resource which we realize is more and more precious.
Several technologies exist to be more sober in water in the shower.
Starting with the aerators, not new, which reduce the flow without changing the comfort.
The Grenoble start-up Hydrao wanted to go even further, by also developing a shower head that changes color the longer the water is allowed to run.
The whole game then is to avoid reaching the red level.
Fun, but effective?
How many liters of water do you use for your shower?
Gabriel Della-Monica puts his hand to cut: to this question, many French people will answer with a shrug of the shoulders or an estimate at random, he bets.
It is this lack of information that the Grenoblois, in the past a telecom engineer, proposes to fill with Hydrao, a connected shower head developed with friends and marketed since the end of 2015.
The knob changes color the more the water is allowed to flow: from green as long as you are under 10 liters to red when you cross the 30 mark. The whole challenge is then to cross as few color levels as possible .
Playful, but not only.
The proof: Hydrao has already won several awards and is one of the 1,000 solutions for the planet listed by the Solar Impulse Foundation.
The shower, the primary source of water consumption in a home
This is because the issue is not insignificant: "21% of the water consumed in France is for domestic purposes, not nothing," recalls Marillys Macé, general manager of the Information Center of the eau (CIEAU), an association which provides information on water issues and observes the opinions and behavior of French people with regard to this resource.
In detail, 20% is used for toilets (flushing), 12% for cleaning linen, 10% for dishes, 6% for car and garden maintenance, etc.
“But the first item of consumption is baths and showers, up to 40%”, resumes Marillys Macé.
On average, the French allow between 40 and 50 liters of water to flow for a single shower.
It is therefore difficult to ignore when you are trying to reduce your consumption as an individual.
The historic drought affecting France this summer has once again reminded us of the need for this.
In his outing on the "end of abundance", recently in the Council of Ministers, Emmanuel Macron ranked water among the resources that are becoming scarce.
“At the beginning of August, there were more than 100 municipalities deprived of drinking water and supplied by tanker truck, recalls Gabriel Della-Monica.
It shakes this idea too often anchored that water is an inexhaustible resource in France and that it is enough to open the taps so that it flows without having to ask more questions.
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Water, a great forgotten eco-gesture?
This is Hydrao's initial observation: water is the great forgotten part of eco-gestures.
"We are much less aware of it than of the need to save energy", regrets Gabriel Della-Monica, Over the past twenty years, while many technical processes have made it possible to better manage and reduce the consumption of energy in buildings, nothing similar could be done on water, we also point out at Hydrao.
Marillys Macé nuances the picture somewhat: “We have observed changes in behavior over the past 25 years.
Would it be the fact that the French increasingly favor showers over baths, she begins.
This saves money, as long as you don't stay in the shower for two hours.
At the same time, it points to performance gains on household appliances and technological processes that allow better control of consumption.
“The best example is the dual flush toilet, which is becoming the norm in homes.
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For faucets and shower heads, the director of CIEAU mentions aerators.
"They allow air and water to mix when you open the valves, giving the illusion of having the same amount of water as usual when the flow has been reduced by two", details- she.
The Hydrao pommel also incorporates a flow reducer.
“The flow rate of a classic shower head is around 9 liters per minute when it is 6.1 with the Hydrao shower head, all without changing the comfort”, explains Gabriel Della-Monica.
The nudge, not a gimmick
"But our solution would be incomplete if we had stopped at the only reduction of flow", he insists.
A way of saying that the play of colors – self-sufficient in energy thanks to its mini-turbine – is far from being a gimmick in his eyes.
The people of Grenoble want to play on the springs of the "nudge", this art of encouraging us to adopt a behavior that is beneficial for us and for the community without realizing it.
It is already regularly used for ecological purposes to encourage sorting, opting for soft mobility or reducing electricity consumption...
So why not use it to manage your water consumption?
"The game of not getting to the color red, but also the smartphone application that we have developed and which allows you to note progress over time, by memorizing up to 200 showers, are just as powerful levers as the reduction throughput", assures Gabriel Della-Monica.
From 40 to 50 liters used per shower, the hydrao heads would increase to 20 liters of water on average.
Beyond the satisfaction of doing "one's part" to preserve resources, Gabriel Della-Monica adds the savings on the bills.
“Not just the one on the water,” he insists.
We often forget that hot water also consumes energy.
The production of domestic hot water represents 11% of the energy consumption of a home, says the Agency for the environment and energy management (Ademe).
7,051,810 m³ of water already saved
In the end, the savings are far from negligible, we are assured at Hénéo.
Since the end of 2020, this subsidiary of the Régie immobilière de la ville de Paris (RIVP), which manages 76 residences in Ile-de-France, has started installing Hydrao knobs in its homes and plans to equip 2,953 by the end of 2024. It's already been done in his residence on rue Richemont (13th arrondissement), which has 125 apartments, largely occupied by students.
“Over one year, we managed to reduce the residence's water consumption by 2,500 m3, and the bill by just over 5,500 euros,” explains Ousmane Sylla, “purchasing” and technical contracts manager.
We should repay the investment (7,900 euros) in just over a year.
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Other professionals have also chosen to rely on Hydrao knobs.
“Real estate developers, hotels or communities”, list Gabriel Della-Monica.
Like Dunkirk which, since August 2019, has invested in 498 Hydrao showerheads to equip 24 of its sports equipment with our technology.
If we add individuals - for 79.90 euros each -, Hydrao announces that it has sold 70,000 knobs in France since its creation.
They have saved 7,051,810 m³ of water, the equivalent of the annual domestic consumption of a city the size of Bayonne (44,000 inhabitants), assesses the Grenoble company.
Gabriel Della-Monica expects the numbers to increase further with the summer we have just passed.
"While August is generally a quiet month, we recorded a lot of visits to our site", he observes in particular.
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