BATHROOMS, SHOWERS & KITCHENS AQUALISA GETS SMART IN THE SHOWER
Digitisation of our lives is here to stay and that includes the way we wash.
O
ccasionally, a product is introduced into the merchants that makes a step change in the technology of a tried and tested product area.
Aqualisa believes that its new range of showers will see the shower marketplace changed for good as the new products take showering into the smart home scenario for the first time. The bathroom and wet room are fast becoming an integral part of today’s smart home, with intelligent technology that not only makes possible exceptional control and ease of use, but also reliability and easy installation. The new Aqualisa Smart Quartz Collection is an evolution of the original Quartz digital shower, with the aim of creating a new generation of showers with unheard of levels of connectivity, including breakthrough voice activation. Quartz was launched back in 2001 and has since become the best-selling shower in its category. The new Aqualisa Smart Quartz Collection of showers takes things step forward with a mobile app that brings Aqualisa fully into the emerging smart home environment. The next big thing for showering here in the UK has long been to establish Wi-Fi connection, app technology and voice activation as an integral part of the showering experience – all things that come as standard with the new Smart Quartz Collection from Aqualisa. Adding connectivity pushes the boundaries of smart technology and takes showering to new experiential levels.
App technology allows the homeowner 20
to control the smart digital shower via WIFI, connecting through residential WIFI networks to the Aqualisa Smart Valve (ASV) using safe and secure best practice for IoT/Connected devices. It utilises the simplest on-boarding techniques possible to establish secure and robust connection with the ASV via WIFI. It’s voice activation and personalisation of the new showers that will make it stand out against the competition. It integrates with established smart home eco-systems via voice control – using Alexa. The range consists of Quartz Blue, the introduction to the smart showering revolution for the new Collection, Quartz Classic, an already proven best seller now with added smart technology and top of the range Quartz Touch, which offers the most personal showering experience yet and to which devotees of the smart home will aspire. Every member of the family can activate their own personal shower requirement – created and saved on the App for the perfect, consistently repeated showering experience.
For installers, the new Smart Quartz Collection is a great proposition for new build, self-build or renovation projects, principally because the unique Aqualisa Smart Valve – the brains of the new smart collection - can be located up to 10 metres away from the shower itself, providing unbelievable flexibility in installation. Installers will find this new product range easy to sell, impressing their customers with the benefits of connectivity – voice activation being a major unique selling point.
“’Alexa turn my shower on’ will quickly become a familiar command in homes with a new Aqualisa Smart Quartz Collection shower”, says Aqualisa CEO, Colin Sykes. “The Quartz excellence established from the early two thousands will offer homeowners the most sophisticated showering experience available. Despite the advent of the smart home and the arrival of a myriad of smart products, the suggestion, even five years ago, that showers would take this huge step into the world of smart technology would have been difficult to imagine. Thanks to Aqualisa, this is now a reality. It seems the most natural development for them to take, but we’re delighted it’s us introducing this technology to the UK and Ireland,” he adds.
BMJ
THE SEVEN AGES OF
SHOWERING
Multi-generational living is on the rise, meaning greater demand for housing that reflects this strong trend. Showering spaces that cater for different needs within the same household will be increasingly important.
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R
ecent research for the NHBC Foundation by the Cambridge Centre for Housing & Planning Research (CCHPR) finds that 1.8 million UK households now include two or more adult generations. That’s 38% up since 2009. Drivers include providing support for older family members, a lack of affordable retirement homes, as well as sons and daughters returning to live with their parents, and the high cost of housing.
The demographics of an ageing population will have an increasing impact. According to the ONS, there are currently 11.8 million over 65s in the UK. They are forecast to rise to 18.5 million by 2040. The return of millennials to live with their parents is a big driver too. The Resolution Foundation says about 20% of 25-34-year-olds live with their parents, compared with 16% in 1991. With a shortage of new homes being built, worsening affordability, and rising rentals,
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net May 2020
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