A hotel near Exeter has become the test bed for one of the more unusual ideas in green hospitality: a shower that cleans and reuses its own water while you're still under it.
Voco Zeal Exeter Science Park opened in March 2025 as IHG Hotels & Resorts' first property under its net zero carbon brand. The 142-room hotel was built to Passivhaus low-energy standards and holds a BREEAM Outstanding rating — credentials that already put it in a small club. Now Swedish company Orbital Systems has installed its Orbital Shower in a guestroom for a six-month pilot, with a wider commercial rollout on the table if the trial goes well.
The technology has genuinely odd origins: it grew out of an academic collaboration with NASA. The shower runs as a closed loop, continuously monitoring, filtering and UV-purifying water in real time inside the unit itself. The upshot is dramatic on paper — fresh water consumption drops by up to 90% and energy use by up to 80%, while the shower still delivers a warm flow of up to 12 litres a minute. That last part matters, because eco-shower attempts in hotels have historically meant weak trickles and lukewarm disappointment. This one claims power without the guilt.
For the hotel's operators, the maths is as compelling as the environmental case. Because the system recirculates water that's already warm, it trims three separate costs at once: buying municipal water, heating it, and paying to dispose of wastewater. Hot water has always been one of the biggest hidden expenses in a hotel bathroom, so reclaiming both water and heat at the source attacks the problem where it's most expensive. "Sustainability that also lowers costs is an easy decision," said Tim Wheeldon of Zeal Hotels, the developer behind the project, describing it as invisible technology that asks nothing of guests.
There's a data angle too. The shower connects to Orbital's My Water platform, which logs water and energy savings in real time — useful for the verified ESG reporting that corporate clients increasingly demand when booking hotels for conferences and business travel.
Why should a holidaymaker care? If the Exeter pilot proves out, water-recycling showers could start appearing in mainstream hotel brands far beyond one science park in Devon. Guests presumably won't notice much beyond a normal, decent shower — which is exactly the point. The broader trend is worth watching: hotels under real pressure to cut carbon are turning to tech that delivers measurable savings without degrading the stay. And if you're specifically keen to sleep in Britain's first net zero IHG property, the option now exists, complete with Passivhaus construction that should make for a notably quiet, well-insulated room. Exeter itself makes a handy base for Devon and the Jurassic Coast, with the Science Park just off the M5 to the city's east. Whether you'd volunteer to be the guest testing the recycled shower is another question — though given the filtration and UV treatment involved, it's probably cleaner than the average hotel tank.