A COMPANY has invented a way to help households reduce their hot water bill by 90 per cent. Magic Thermodynamic Box, a renewable energy company, has developed and manufactured a system by which heat taken from the environment is pumped into the hot water cylinder in a house, heating water 24 hours a day.

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Essex inventor says device is like a fridge… but in reverse

ACOMPANY has invented a way to help households reduce their hot water bill by 90 per cent. Magic Thermodynamic Box, a renewable energy company, has developed and manufactured a system by which heat taken from the environment is pumped into the hot water cylinder in a house, heating water 24 hours a day. Called the Little Magic Box, it is one of a number of products sold by the Chelmsford-based company. But it is the most recent product, complete with patent, which was invented by former Colchester resident Scott Styles, who now lives in Hockley. Mr Styles explained: “I have captured the concept of a fridge, but in reverse. “Through the Little Magic Box we can harvest the heat in the environment and put it into the hot water cylinders.” The technology of thermodynamics has been around for many years. Mr Styles came across the term in 2010 and became intrigued. He said: “What I learned was there is no such thing as cold. It’s just a sensation. “But there are degrees of heat and cold is caused by an absence of the heat. Once I understood that concept, I looked at how a fridge works. “Fridges use thermodynamic principles, but take the heat energy out. The fridge feels cold inside, but if you feel behind it, it’s warm.” The Little Magic Box works by attaching an aluminium panel to anywhere on the outside of a house. For older, listed properties, they can be attached inside the loft or attic space. The heat taken from the environment is then transferred to the box, which is attached to the hot water cylinder. The box lives in the airing cupboard and Mr Styles claims it can reduce a household’s hot water bill by 90 per cent. He said his “eureka” moment for the box’s potential came when he discovered a way to retrofit the boxes to hot water systems. Mr Styles explained: “There are 23 million cylinders of hot water in the UK and if we could retrofit the box, then potentially all households could have one.” He turned to Alistair Smit, managing director of the Magic Thermodynamic Box, for his business acumen and, with the help of patent expert James Sanderson, they secured a patent on the product 14 months ago. It was manufactured abroad, but since last October the manufacturing was moved to Maldon, where Calorex in the Causeway not only makes the product under licence, but helps with product development and improvements. The Little Magic Box is now in its third incarnation, with each new launch bringing something New and more efficient to the system. The latest version was launched earlier this month. “This is an education selling product,” said Mr Styles. “Without explaining what it is and what it does, people won’t know anything about it.” The box is being sold through boiler companies and distributors, while an export agreement has been reached with distributors in Slovakia, Italy and Greece. There has also been interest from China and Australia. “We have completed 5,000 orders so far and because we are a small company it’s all about educating the market.” The firm will take a stand at the Ecobuild fair at ExCel in London in March and at Germany’s Intersolar Fair in June, the world’s largest renewable energy fair. Mr Styles added: “The possibilities for this product are endless.”