Waste of Space

I attended a press event the other day for a manufacturer of water heaters and boilers. It doesn't matter which one because what I have to say broadly applies to them all.

The Chief Executive was proudly telling us how the company is driven by innovation and they showed us some of their latest ‘innovative products’. Though I didn't want to rain on their parade I was a little underwhelmed. Most of what they showed us were 'me too products'. A new unvented cylinder with an extra bit of insulation . An under-sink hot water heater that did nothing more than deliver hot water. Don't they all do that. They showed us pictures of the heater installed under the sink. Who wants a water heater under their sink anyway? Once you have one of those in your cupboard there is very little space left for all the things that should go under there.
"Where else are you going to put it?" they asked me.
The company employs no less than 18 full time R&D staff and between them they hadn't managed to find an alternative place.

Space, or lack of it is the big issue these days. As land prices go up houses are getting smaller. Yet everybody wants more bathrooms and bigger kitchens but customers hate seeing anything to do with plumbing. Instead of designing new look casings and salivating over the sleek lines manufacturers need to think up ways of making their products disappear.


How about putting that water heater in the kick space under the unit? A small removable cover in the bottom of the kitchen cupboard to change the immersion heater is all you need to see. The kick space under the unit is dead space in all kitchens. Why not put a central heating boiler in there while you are at it? Why do boilers all have to be the same size and shape?. It makes no sense to have a boiler taking up kitchen cupboard space yet making them fit into cupboards has been the holy grail of boiler design for years. Yet when you take the casing off a boiler the components are anything but the shape that covers them. A cylindrical boiler with a coil heat exchanger shouldn't be hard to design. It could even lie along the top of some wall units, tucked in at the back.

A new solar cylinder was also unveiled at the do, but it looked like every other cylinder except that the extra coil makes it almost as tall as a man. What modern home has space for a 210ltr solar cylinder?
Why not make it so it can lie on its side in an eaves cupboard or why not make a matrix of hot water tubes that can be placed inside the 100mm space of a stud wall. The space between floor joists is also wasted. Why not make a boiler to go in there? There is around 350mm of gap between joists and it is often 200mm deep. Again a simple trap door would do for servicing.

Haven't they noticed that there is also a lot of space under the bath? What a perfect place for a water heater or a boiler. At present in design terms there is very little to choose between one manufacturer's products and another. What we need now is not lip service to innovation but some real ideas which address the needs of installers and end users. Manufacturers need to think outside the box to give the market some real choice and the market will then respond with some enthusiasm.


Roger Bisby
www.selfbuilder.net