The HSB Living Lab is a building, a home and at the same time a laboratory - and an arena for research and collaboration. It is a unique test bed for finding solutions for the sustainable housing of the future. Here, research and development can take place in a real environment with fantastic opportunities to measure and extract data from the approximately 2,000 sensors in the building.
In the HSB Living Lab, researchers and students live permanently, while research takes place around the clock.
- We face major challenges in a wide range of areas. Globally, we need to work together to meet climate targets if our planet is to remain a place to live. Here at home, we need to look at emissions from cars, from aviation - and from the housing sector," says Kalle Sjöstrand, Rental Property Manager at HSB Living Lab.
In HSB Living Lab, Enduce's shower floor trays have been tested for more than six months. The floor drain recycles up to 75 percent of the heat in the shower water - valuable energy that would otherwise go down the drain. The technology significantly reduces resource consumption and also balances the power requirements of homes, reducing costs for both property owners and energy producers.
- Reducing energy consumption when showering is an important part of the transition to sustainable housing and energy systems. With our floor drains, we are tackling the single biggest energy issue in households. A lot has been done in energy efficiency, but unfortunately the norm is still that we flush hot water energy without recycling straight into the sewage system. The industry needs a new standard," says Henrik Hagman, founder of Enduce and PhD in energy technology.
Both Madelaine Doufrix and Kalle Sjöstrand are very satisfied with the cooperation with Enduce.
- Enduce quickly learned from the challenges encountered during installation and testing in the HSB Living Lab. For example, there were some concerns with the recessed installation in the existing floor because the wells are large and the floor joist did not match this. There was also some work to be done on the filters and cleaning of the wells, which the team also quickly adjusted and came up with a new prototype during the next visit and follow-up. This development has certainly contributed to even better functioning of the wells," says Madelaine Doufrix.
Enduce has tested six floor drains in the HSB Living Lab. Four of these have now been decommissioned, but two have been built in permanently. The two permanent wells will continue to be evaluated, and for the four that have been removed, a final report has been created and will now be reviewed.
- It will be exciting to see how much energy savings we can make, how maintenance and care work and how and when the well is suitable for use," says Kalle Sjöstrand.
- During the project, we worked to make the product easier to install and for residents to understand. We have continued to work on the appearance, indication for cleaning and handling and designed new clearer components, written manuals and small short instructions. In other words, the project at HSB has been incredibly rewarding for us where we have seen how our product behaves in real environments," says Thomas Holmberg.
Series production of Enduce floor drains will begin in the fall of 2023.
