Hydrao high-tech shower head monitors water consumption

Around the house, we tend to use a lot of water: washing dishes, showering, doing the laundry, etc. One French firm, Start & Blue has been trying to draw more attention to how much water people use while in the shower with the launch of a smart shower head.

Hydrao helps bathers limit their water consumption by lighting up with different colors as an indicator to monitor water use. The shower head is completely automated, too, requiring no batteries, but rather running on the water that flows through it.

The system works in conjunction with a smartphone app, available for iOS and Android, and allows users to track water use over time. It even offers options to change the water consumption threshold and what color the shower head flashes.

According to its creators, the first generation of Hydrao reduced water use by an average of 25%.

The technology was first launched on French crowdfunding site KissKissBankBank in 2014 and is now in its second generation phase of development. This version will debut this week in Las Vegas at CES 2016 and then will make its way to Kickstarter in September before going on sale officially at the beginning of next year for about $100.

Hydrao can be used with any conventional shower hose  and connected to the companion app via Bluetooth 4.0 so users can store shower data on 200 showers and track progress over time. According to the company, the average shower uses over 21 gallons of water, but Hydrao aims to cut this down to about 15.

To achieve this, the LED lights built into the shower head change color throughout, starting at green for up to 2.5 gallons, then red after 8 gallons and flashing red after 13 gallons.