We like hot showers and we think everyone does. Once winter comes, however, the cost of that creature comfort before most of us trudge off to a job we hate is going to be steep. High gas bills in winters are a stuff of nightmares in households across the country. The reason? Those bulky monstrous gas powered water heaters, or geysers as they are commonly called, hidden from sight at the back of your house.
You’ll be surprised to know that the design of these water heaters has not been tinkered with for over 70 years. It’s an inefficient device and the inconvenience of turning it on and off again before you want to take a shower means most of us keep it running 24/7. That translates into needless natural gas consumption and increased costs. No more!
Meet Jul Bujh. A literal plug and play solution, it aims to improve the efficiency of water heaters to save both gas and money for consumers. It does that by making the thermostat intelligent.
Once you install Jul Bujh on your water heater, which takes five minutes, you can specify a schedule for turning the heater on. Do you usually take a shower in the morning before work and after a gym session in the evenings three days a week? Set that up through your smartphone in the Jul Bujh app (both Android and iOS will be supported) and it will keep the heater off at all times except those. As you might have figured out already, this adds up to a lot of savings.
Just as you would have demanded, the app is capable of setting up a schedule for the water heater to any possible mode, i.e. full capacity, one fourth, three fourth, just pilot mode or any thing that you would like to configure… check a screen grab from the app below:
Another great thing about the device is that the motor in it can last up to a whole winter season on two AA batteries. The batteries that power the process circuitry need not be replaced for up to 18 months. So once you install it, you can pretty much forget about it, which is precisely why we like it so much.
The concept has already been tested and verified through field trials last winter. Now Jul Bujh is looking for support from the crowd-funding community for building dies, moulds and automating the production. The device costs $60 (roughly 6000 PKR) so it is reasonable to assume you’d pay off the investment over the course of one winter season.
The project is being undertaken by veterans in the field who are backing Jul Bujh with their experience. Amongst them are Zia Imran, a Cornell graduate, and Farrukh Kamran, a PhD from Georgia Tech. So truth be told, we can think of no reason why this isn’t as good as it sounds.
If you like the idea as much as we do, you can support the project at their Indiegogo page.
