WETFLOOR FORMER THAT CUT CARBON FOOTPRINT BY 70%

Careful selection of components and materials can make a significant contribution towards improving the overall energy performance- including embodied energy- in both new build and refurbishment homes, claims Contour Showers.

The company, the UK’s leading manufacturer of showering solutions for the majority, has undertaken major investment in its production processes, to the extent its new Ecodec® wetfloor former has a carbon footprint up to 70% lower than any similar product on the market, thus helping enhance the overall energy rating of the building, whilst enabling efficient creation of a wetfloor in the bathroom.

Manufactured in the UK from over 90% recycled plastic and itself 100% recyclable, Ecodec® is proven to yield only 53.5kg CO2 equivalent over its life, compared to 184kg CO2 equivalent for alternative formers*. Further, Ecodec® is lighter in weight, reducing transport, labour and structural installation costs, and is guaranteed for 25 years.

Contour Showers’ Marketing & IT Manager Marc Smith elaborates, “Embodied energy accounts for some 27% of the lifetime carbon costs of housing, so small changes in product specification can make a big difference! If you multiply the savings our Ecodec can make across fixtures and fittings in other rooms in a home, the impact on the overall carbon footprint would be major!

“The Empty Homes Agency’s ‘New Tricks with Old Bricks’ report maintains that if the 288,000+ long-term empty homes in England were re-used and upgraded to higher energy efficiency standards as part of the Government’s plans for three million new homes by 2020, the research results suggest that the immediate carbon cost could be cut by 8%, or more than 10 million tonnes. This saving is equivalent to taking 3.3 million cars off the road for a whole year, the entire annual household CO2 emissions of a city one-and-a-half times the size of Birmingham, or every household in Reading going zero-carbon for 26 years. That figure can be further improved simply by use of building products with low embodied energy, which do not compromise performance standards- as advised in the Sustainable Homes’ Embodied Energy in Residential Property Development Guide- and yield value for money.”

Ecodec® is just part of Contour Showers’ comprehensive range, the majority of which is recyclable. The British company has over 50 years’ experience in the provision of showering solutions, manufactured and assembled in the UK, with an offering now encompassing options from wetfloor areas through low-level and step-in shower trays to self-contained cubicles and ancillary items from shower seats to grabrails.
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*figures attained following assessment in conformity with BSi PAS2050:2008 using methods outlined in BS EN 14021, and data from Environmental Recyling Technologies plc and the University of Bath ICE 1.6a.