Problem
One of the biggest problems facing us at the moment is increased bills, both commercially and domestically. Water usage and water-saving affects two of these quite substantially –
namely water bills and energy bills.
Saving water and energy is now a huge industry whether it’s in the workplace, schools and colleges or in the home. This product covers all these areas.
Taking the home first, where we use and waste huge amounts…
We already have a great water saving device available to use in the home, but no one uses it – what is it? - The push tap. Why does no one use it? Well...
It could be an aesthetic issue, but we‘ve all seen beautiful push taps.
It could be a functionality problem – but what’s so hard about hitting a push tap every so often? - We do it when we’re out.
When we get right down to it, the problem is all about pride - appearance – the householder doesn’t want to ‘appear’ to be tight, frugal, careful etc. with something so seemingly abundant. Herein is where the problem lies.
The problem isn’t only about saving water – if the hot is left on it is wasting huge amounts of energy!
Solution
Put push taps in the home, why not? We know they save huge amounts. How do we sell push taps for domestic use? This is where the Aquagreen Tap comes in - a hybrid.
This tap looks like a turn tap and it is, if you turn it, it comes on and goes off an appropriate time later. So, the tap looks like a turn tap and yet it isn’t – if you push it, it will come on for the same period - simple.
How is this achieved? Quite simply, by clever design...As the tap is turned it follows a cam downwards, in turn pushing down onto a standard push tap mechanism. Also with some models, as well the timing being adjustable 3 to 12 seconds, so is the throughput of water by simply changing the cup underneath up to 5 timer settings.
…So this makes perfect sense in the home, children wouldn’t be leaving taps on all the time, and the elderly, infirmed and the absent-minded wouldn’t be either. They would also find them easier to use as the action has a lever effect.
Commercial Applications
The commercial market would be ideal for this design.
Hotels would like it because it looks good, saves water and reduces the evils of flooding.
Offices could make huge savings – not leaving taps on in unattended washrooms and still have great looking turn taps.
In fact anywhere where there’s a push tap, - now an Aquagreen tap could easily be fitted.
Residential homes would also benefit from this design as the turning action is easier as it cannot ‘lock’ tight and again it reduces the possibility of flooding.
Schools would also like them as little ones would find them easier and more familiar than commercial push taps.
Also as the design only affects the ‘cartridge’, so they could all be ‘retro fitted’, causing minimum disruption and expense.
Unique Selling Points
Conclusions
There couldn’t be a better time to bring a water saving tap to market - especially a design which can fit into most washroom environments.
The Design
The design is based on a simple cam motion. As a basis for this inventive step
the design was based on modifications to an existing popular non-concussive design – a design common to a lot of push taps. This tap was chosen for its popularity in commercial environments and its robustness as well as easy overall design. Since then we have altered the design to fit onto other popular models with differing specifications..
These particular taps are good to work with as they comes in two parts the spout and the cartridge mechanism (Figure 2), which screws into the base (spout) – thus giving us the advantage of being able to retro-fit the new product without having to change the whole tap if needs be.
Though it must be stressed the idea can be engineered to fit into almost any non-concussive design.
The Aquagreen Tap
The Aquagreen tap as you can see is a hybrid turn/push tap design with a push action self-closing mechanism. This will fit into the existing base (spout) though a whole new design to go with the Aquagreen tap would be in keeping. The interior mechanism can be re-designed, re-engineered to fit into most push tap designs in the market- place today.
When the user turns the tap, the action of the cam on the three part thread has the effect of pushing the self-closing mechanism down as it would if you just pushed it down. Also, if the user just pushes the tap down the mechanism is free to act like a normal self-closing push tap. At the end of the set time the taps shuts off.
It is also worth pointing out that the original design was based on a push tap - this tap was chosen as the amount of water flowing through the tap
can be altered by changing the cup size in some models (in blue) and the time can also be set to either 3, 5, 8 or approximately 12 seconds by altering the size of the thickness of the timer counter set in the base of the cup.
The design has now been updated to fit the Bristan range - Z LUX 1/2 C Z DUS 1/2 C SY Z 1/2 C although the design can be easily adapted to fit any push tap settings.
Design Summary
Although this is an inventive step on an existing design, let it be clear that this design would easily stand up on its own as an integral part of a brand new, freshly designed water-saving tap.
I also see this design as robust in nature and able to stand up in most washroom environments as well as a help for young and old alike.
This design is a must for establishments and homes trying to save water and energy without all the hassle of troublesome electronic sensors, neither the prosaic look of a traditional push tap nor the well-known inefficiencies of the ubiquitous turn tap. See the Aquagreen tap here: