Nebia is a new showerhead design that uses 70 per cent less water than a regular showerhead. Developed by health spa owner Carlos Gomez Andonaegui and co-founder Philip Winter, the showerhead could save millions of gallons of water in some of the most arid places.
Gomez Andonaegui hails from Mexico City, where more than 20 million people live in the metropolitan area. The city sits at an altitude of more than 7,000 feet, which means that water has to be pumped upwards using systems that date back to the 1940s. Such a massive undertaking means that the price of water can be unstable. This is highly inconvenient for the spa owner.
After five years of development work, the Nebia has finally been unveiled. The showerhead produces millions of tiny droplets that have a surface area 100 times smaller than those produced by a normal shower. This makes the flow only 0.75 gallons per minute in comparison to the standard 2.5 gallons per minute under EPA standards.
Winter said: “Showers have been the same for 100 years. There’s the overhead spigot. Now, you’ve got rain showers. But there’s no meaningful innovation here. It’s dominated by a handful of players like Kohler that are mostly private multi-generational companies.”
In order to achieve these results, the Nebia has a flat, circular showerhead that is constructed from high-density polymer. It incorporates nozzles that spray out micro droplets of water. The plumbing will fit to any standard piping. There is no electronic functionality at this stage, although this is planned for the future.
“We think we can have a very cool brand with the idea of conserving the world’s water,” Winter said. “We want to change the way that people think about water in their day-to-day lives. The shower is the most intimate part of your day that you spend with water.”
The Nebia showerhead is launching on Kickstarter with an initial price of $299. Similar to Nest, their strategy is to create a direct-to-consumer brand over time. With Tim Cook as an early investor, they must be doing something right.