Embodied Carbon and Shower Heat Recovery for Developers

Tackling the Hidden Challenge: Embodied Carbon in Zypho WWHR for Zero‑Carbon Homes

Why Today’s Housing Developers Can’t Ignore Embodied Carbon

You’re investing heavily in high-density eco‑homes, but embodied carbon accounts for around 20% of UK construction emissions. You will need to control costs and carbon early or face possible redesigns or delays in planning agreements.

Zypho Waste Water Heat Recovery: An Embodied Carbon Opportunity

Zypho has worked hard to use materials most efficiently in all our products.

CO2

For the Zypho horizontal models, the embodied Carbon present (made chiefly from Copper and ABS moulded plastic) equates to:

  • For the iZi30 horizontal model ~15.2kg CO2
  • For the Slim50 horizontal model ~ 17.3kg CO2e

The Zypho vertical models, are manufactured from Stainless Steel with some Polypropylene mouldings:

  • For the PiPe65 vertical model ~ 59.8kg CO2e
  • For the PiPe75 vertical model ~ 65.8kg CO2e

“Payback”

As soon as the Zypho units go into operation in homes, all our products have a rapid payback in terms of CO2.

The Carbon saving will depend on how the hot water is made. With the assumptions that:

  1. making HW costs 0.25 kg CO2 / kWh heat,
  2. the average household is using 1500 kWh HW / year on showering

For the Horizontals

The iZi30 saves around 30% of this (ie: around 450 kWh / year. This equates to 113kg CO2 / year saving.

As such, the “Payback time” = 15.2 / 113 = 0.13 years (1.6 months)

The Slim50 saves around 1/2 of this (ie: around 750 kWh / year. This equates to 188kg CO2 / year saving.

As such, the “Payback time” = 17.3 / 188 = 0.092 years (1.1 months)

For the Verticals

The PiPe65 saves around 65% (ie: around 975 kWh / year = 244 kg CO2 / year saving.

“Payback time” = 59.8 / 244 = 0.25 years (2.9 months)

The PiPe75 saves around 75% (ie: around 1,125 kWh / year = 281 kg CO2 / year saving.

“Payback time” = 65.8 / 281 = 0.23 years (2.8 months)

What Zypho WWHR Means for Developers

  • Control costs.Low material weight and embodied carbon leads to less expensive SAP penalties and smoother planning sign‑offs.
  • Future‑proof your assets. Zypho’s published data helps meet the demand for transparency with Carbon reporting.
    Early implementation will help avoid retrofits and additional cost.

Bottom Line: Act Early, Think Smart, Specify Zypho

Zypho’s WWHR systems allow you to achieve tangible reductions in both embodied and operational carbon, precisely aligning with the demands of SAP-10.2, RIBA 2030 and BREEAM.

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

Finally it is important to note from an Environmental Product Declaration (EPC) point of view that thanks to the passive operation of the Zypho unit, there is no running cost or emissions associated with operation.

Sources
  1. Embodied carbon is c.20% of UK built environment emissions; energy-efficient buildings may see 40‑50% lifecycle share Stroma+5UKGBC+5vbn.aau.dk+5
  2. UK government to enact embodied-carbon assessment mandates for >1,000 m² from 2025‑26 Stroma
  3. Industry shift towards whole-life carbon and supply-chain transparency (UKGBC, WorldGBC, ECHO) wikipedia.org+10UKGBC+10World Green Building Council+10

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