Watflo, a Doncaster-based rainwater harvesting company, has scooped the gold award at the biannual Waterwise UK Water Efficiency Product Awards.
The company won the award for its Dual Flow Water Diverter, filter unit and h20 Harvester Brainbox system, which – the firm says – “are proven to save homeowners and commercial property owners up to 55% on their water usage”.
The presentation took place in March at the House of Lords, where the awards were presented by Nicci Russell, Managing Director of Waterwise. Over 150 delegates attended the Waterwise awards ceremony from the water industry, water harvesting companies and local authorities. Watflo was also invited to attend the annual Waterwise water efficiency conference the day after the awards event, which was held at the Royal Society of the Arts in London.
Melvyn Davenport, Managing Director of Watflo, said he was pleased to receive the award. He said: “Our Dual Flow Diverter is a very simple but effective product and when combined with our highly sophisticated h20 Harvester Brainbox technology it means a homeowner has everything they need to make huge savings on their water usage, as well as making their home more sustainable. It also allows commercial users to make similar savings.”
Nicci Russell, Managing Director of Waterwise, said: “We would like to congratulate Watflo on their innovative new rainwater harvesting system, which was recognised as outstanding by our judging panel. These awards are all about celebrating the achievements of public, private and charitable organisations that promote water efficiency, solve water challenges and simply save water. We were very impressed with the high standard of entries to our awards this year – it is fantastic to see so much innovation going on in the water recycling sector.”
Watflo’s two way diverter allows water to flow in opposite directions, simultaneously. It diverts rainwater, as well as grey water from bathtubs, sinks and showers to be recycled to flush toilets. It features a universal socket end, which can be easily fitted to any rainwater downpipe. Available in four colours, it provides continual recycling of water, without allowing it to stagnate or overflow. One of the major benefits of the system is that it can be installed by a competent DIY-er, rather than needing a plumber to fit it.
The h20 Harvester Brainbox is described as “a revolutionary electronically-controlled water flushing system”, which connects to the water butt/tank and redistributes filtered water back into a property, to enable it to be used to flush toilets and outdoors, such as watering plants or cleaning the car.
A control box overlooks the diversion of water to several outlets, including hosepipe, toilet, outdoor water, plus an intermittent setting for hanging baskets, window boxes, shrubs and watering the lawn. It can be controlled by an app on a smartphone from anywhere in the world and a digital display monitors customers’ savings every day.
Watflo was established in 2014 when Melvyn Davenport, an experienced plastic injection moulding specialist, embarked on an exciting business venture to develop a rainwater harvesting product, with support in developing the h2o Harvest Brainbox system from Sheffield Hallam University.
Melvyn, a keen gardener, recognised the issues that people face when hosepipe bans are in place in the summer, with the risk of fines of £1,000 if people use a hosepipe to water their garden or wash their car. He was also very aware of the water shortage here in the UK and in many countries around the world. Melvyn therefore put his expertise in plastics into play and designed an innovative T-shaped injection moulded component which can be retrofitted to any waste/grey and rainwater downpipe: Dual Flow Diverter. This product has been a great success already and is being sold by distributors, as well as directly by Watflo.
Melvyn Davenport added: “Water shortage and increasing water rates are a major problem, both here in the UK and overseas. We see huge opportunities for our rainwater harvesting products as every year in the UK an average 90,000 litres of water falls on every roof and is wasted. Our products are designed to help people use water more smartly around the home or business and reduce the pressure on water resources, whilst saving cost.”
