Menu
Propelair

The Oracle:  now unlocking even greater water and cost efficiencies

Already benefiting from Propelair’s 1.5lt ultra-low flush technology, The Oracle Shopping Centre is about to achieve even greater efficiencies by upgrading to OneThreeFive units. A two-toilet trial delivered 56,600 litres saved and £571 in only 4 months, demonstrating measurable ROI, improved performance, and scalable upgrade potential across existing infrastructure.

Client Profile

The Oracle Shopping Centre, based in Reading, UK, is a high-footfall retail destination attracting thousands of visitors annually. As a commercial shopping centre, water efficiency is critical to managing operational costs, maintaining sustainability targets, and ensuring resilient infrastructure in a region facing increasing pressure on water resources and utility pricing.

Challenges / Pain Points

The Oracle Shopping Centre faced ongoing pressure to optimise water use within a high-footfall retail environment, where legacy flush systems still contributed to unnecessary consumption and rising utility costs. Like many UK commercial sites, this created challenges around measuring ESG performance, operational efficiency, and maintenance. High usage intensified wear, increasing the risk of inefficiencies, downtime, and avoidable cost leakage across washroom infrastructure. As early adopters of Propelair’s 1.5lt low-flush technology, The Oracle has been benefitting from water savings since 2016 and will now, with the installation of OneThreeFive, extend the water and cost savings benefit.

The Propelair Solution

At The Oracle Shopping Centre, two Propelair OneThreeFive toilets were installed as trial upgrade units, replacing earlier 1.5-litre systems. The OneThreeFive uses just 1.35 litres per flush, combining air-assisted technology with ultra-low water use to deliver consistent performance and improved hygiene. Each unit is enabled with Propelair’s IoT capability, providing real-time data on usage patterns, water consumption, and system performance, allowing facilities teams to optimise maintenance schedules, reduce downtime, and make data-driven decisions that improve operational efficiency. The system supports carbon reduction by lowering water processing demand, while maintaining reliability in high-traffic environments. This trial demonstrates how incremental upgrades across the existing 46 units can unlock additional measurable savings.

Metric: Water per flush
Before: 1.5 litres
After: 1.35 litres
Improvement: 10% reduction
Metric: Annual water use
Before: 156,700 litres
After: 100,100 litres
Improvement: 56,600 litres saved
Metric: Costs
Before: £659 per year
After: £421 per year
Improvement: £238 saved (5 months), £571 annualised
Metric: Carbon
Before: Higher (baseline)
After: Reduced
Improvement: Lower carbon from reduced water processing

Upgrading from 1.5L to 1.35L flush technology reduced water use per flush by 10%. Across 10,448 flushes, this delivered 56,600 litres saved (annualised), cutting consumption from approximately 156,700 litres to 100,100 litres, demonstrating how small design improvements can deliver significant water savings in high-traffic retail environments. Compared to traditional toilets, The Oracle will now save in the region of 85% of water per flush.

The 2-unit trial delivered annualised water cost savings of approximately £571, supporting a payback period of just 3.5 years. Beyond direct savings, reduced water usage lowers strain on infrastructure, contributing to decreased maintenance requirements, fewer callouts, and improved operational efficiency, strengthening overall return on investment in a high-traffic retail environment.

Reducing water consumption by 56,600 litres annually directly lowers carbon emissions associated with water treatment. This supports broader sustainability goals, strengthens ESG reporting metrics, and demonstrates measurable environmental progress, with Propelair’s IoT capability enabling accurate measurement and verification of these ESG benefits through real-time data insights. The upgrade highlights how incremental efficiency improvements can contribute to long-term resource conservation in high-footfall retail environments.

• Air assisted close-to-flush technology improves hygiene by removing waste more effectively and reducing splashback
• Enhanced user experience with consistent, powerful flushing despite ultra-low water use
• Reduced odours due to efficient bowl clearance and sealed waste removal
• Lower maintenance frequency with fewer blockages and improved system reliability
• Faster maintenance and servicing enabled through IoT-driven real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance alerts, and remote diagnostics
• Operational efficiency gains through reduced downtime in high-traffic washrooms
• Retrofittable solution, allowing seamless upgrades from existing systems without major infrastructure changes
• Data-driven facility management, supporting smarter decision-making and performance monitoring