Q&C Nano - Smart Water Purifier
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
An exceptionally energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly, compact smart water dispenser for those who want to enjoy crystal-clear water. Smallest Hot&Cold dispenser in the world for household users to give a great alternative to plastic bottle water. Our water dispenser is 7 times more efficient than traditional water dispensers on the market. Smart technology helps users maintain Nano easily without professional service, for always get crystal clear water.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
We are working on a bottleless future, where people do not buy, transport and throw away plastic bottles anymore. After 13 years of bottled and bottleless water industry experience, our project was to create a water purifier and dispenser, a product that is now could be a great choice even for households and not just offices. With this product, we can bring a great alternative to bottled water for end users. Our first product is the first piece of the lineup with cold, ambient, and hot water feature. Currently, we are working on the second device equipped with sparkling water as well. And later more features will come like, syrup mixing features to give an alternative solution for even wilder. Reduce our dependency of the bottled products.
Key objectives for sustainability
Two of our most important sustainability keys are:
1. Reduce the plastic and aluminum garbage worldwide. The bottled water market is stronger every year. Need to find alternative ways, because its clearly see that even recycling is not a solution for the problem. Many people don't want to drink directly from a tap, so an alternative needed against the bottled water. Nano and our future products are a great choice for household users against bottled water.
2. Average water coolers on the market use significant energy. Our instant water heater solution and energy saver options for cooling cause a huge energy consumption drop. Meanwhile, the average water dispensers use 700 kWh of energy annually, our product use under 100kWh. If every water cooler in the world were to use our technology, we could all save energy equal to the amount generated by a block of a nuclear power plant!
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
One of the most important tasks was to make Nano small. Nano is the smallest hot and cold water dispenser worldwide. The reason is that most of the kitchens already have lots of equipment and not much remaining space. Nano is around 3-4 times smaller than most of the competitors. To reach this size we designed some own technology and used many unique solutions. The TEC cooling system, the flow-through instant heater, and our integrated water board are just a few examples of how we reached the compact size. We have also a unique design of touch interface that is minimal looking, simple to use, and offers a volume slider technology where users can choose different amounts to dispense. Based on our market experience, need simple solutions without not necessary buttons. All the setup is available via iOS and Android app. This is also unique. Nano one of the few smart water dispensers on the market. The glass and unibody aluminum cover are modern-looking without visible screws. We got an award for design in 2018 for our early prototype.
Key objectives for inclusion
Q&C is a small family company in Hungary. One of the targets to be serious manufacture in the following years. Keep the production in Hungary and reach a high volume of production and sales. Design more devices into our incoming lineup. Design even better IoT features and customer management. Spread our products as a great alternative against bottled water and bottled beverages, because every sold item on the market can save a huge amount of plastic every year.
Results in relation to category
The product is in a very early stage. We just sold around 200 pcs. We are at the beginning of the process. Also, have some production problems mostly because of the chip shortage on the market. So currently we cannot show too big impacts and results. However, we hope that our sales numbers could reach 5-10k units in the following years. Every unit could save an average of 1800 pcs of PET bottles annually. It means around 50-70 kg of plastic waste. We think based on our earlier market experience that an average lifecycle of a water dispenser could reach 8-9 years. So a device like Nano could save an average of 500kg of plastic under its lifetime. And significant CO2 emission what usually created meanwhile the transport of the bottled water. Based on it we can only reach impact when our sales numbers rise and the products are used for a while.
How Citizens benefit
Citizens benefits:
-Lower energy use
-No transport needed
-Lower cost in long term
-Less garbage
-Cleaner environment
Innovative character
-Smallest water coolers in the world
-Ultra-low energy consumption. Around 7 times less than average.
-Smart features and fleet management feature for service providers
-With smart features, better options for cleaning and filter life check. This causes a more hygienic solution.
-Unique volume slide. Convenient and very easy to use.
-Great design and material usage
-High-efficiency water filtration.
Mainly for households a great solution for a sustainable and clean drinking water source.
