Innovation Nation

We challenged people of all ages and design abilities to come up with ingenious solutions to everyday household problems. The entry to win the accolade of “Home Invention of the Year” was ‘Speed Searcher’ – a device for finding lost items. The design by school boys Thomas Schmidt, Alex French, Cameron Hughes and Angus Haines was voted into top spot by show visitors. Here’s a full list of the 10 finalists.

  • Hosecan - designed by Peter England

    Wouldn't watering the garden be so much easier if you didn't have to wait with the watering can while it fills it up? The Hosecan is a new invention that makes filling the watering can easier. With a snap hose connection and a simple float valve that stops the water when the can is full, the Hosecan gives you time to get on with other things while it is being filled. As it never wastes water by overflowing, it is also good for the environment.

  • Speed Searcher - designed by Ashfold Primary School (Thomas Schmidt, Alex French, Cameron Hughes and Angus Haines)

    Losing your keys or glasses or leaving a mobile phone somewhere around the house may be problems that plague grown-ups, but it's four youngsters who have come up with the perfect solution. Attach a small chip to your valuables and a compatible part to your computer, and the Speed Searcher can show you on screen where your missing items are hidden. No more looking under the sofa or checking under cushions!

  • Numberlite - designed by John Page

    Finding a door number on a house can be difficult enough in broad day-light, but in the dark it can be almost impossible. The Numberlite is the perfect solution. This lantern has the house number painted in a dark colour so that the light then shines from inside, enabling the number to be clearly seen. As well as the obvious convenience, the lantern uses an eco-bulb in order to be environmentally friendly.

  • Dunksafe - designed by Jonathan Buckle

    The Dunksafe is perfect for people who enjoy a nice cuppa with a biscuit but dread it when the biscuit becomes a little too soggy and drops off before you can get it into your mouth! With its self contained unit with holes at the bottom that allow the tea to flow through, it can be inserted into the mug, creating a spilling buffer. Biscuits can then be dunked freely, without fear of a messy spillage.

  • Tiler's Hook - designed by Jonathan Waights

    If you're planning a spot of DIY this spring, the Tiler's Hook could be the perfect tool for you. It has multiple uses, such as adjusting tiles that have been placed in the wrong position, and dislodging the plastic spaces in between tile corners. In addition to all this, the Tiler's Hook can undo tight knots in rope and string and help with lots of other fiddly household jobs, where fingers are just too big.

  • CorkUnscrew - designed by Peter Galloway

    For wine lovers, this is a fantastic solution to the often laborious problem of extracting the cork from your corkscrew. Just place the "CorkUnscrew" on the cork and with slight pressure, either twist the "Unscrew" whilst holding the corkscrew, or vice versa. The outer surface is knurled to provide grip while the inside is tapered to compress a standard cork.

  • Push-up Plant Pots - designed by Alistair Martin

    As most gardeners will know, young plants can often be ruined when you try to move them from the seed tray to the garden, as the young roots are disturbed during the 'transplant' process. The push-up plant pot is the solution to this problem. A small disk with drainage holes inside the plant pot is the simple mechanism that compost and seeds are planted on top of. When it is time to transplant them to a larger pot or plant them out in the garden you can slide them out easily by pushing up from the bottom.

  • Elegance Shower - designed by Polly Firth

    Elegance has been designed to offer an overall improved shower experience. There is a foot rest on the curved body of the shower that enables you to wash your feet and shave legs with ease. The shower head is also split into five sections so you can select your preferred type of shower - full, body, waist, leg or just feet. The heads work on a click system, so you can choose up to five jets at a time. Elegance is ultimately a sculpture for the bathroom that offers more than the normal shower.

  • Eco Tap - designed by Ian Williams

    The Eco Tap is a great solution to the problem of water wastage. With most domestic hot water supplies, when hot water has been drawn from the tap, a quantity of hot water is retained in the supply pipe, which then goes cold. When the hot tap is next turned on, this cooled water is usually run to waste until hot water is again available. The solution to this is to fit a thermostatic diverter valve on every hot tap. When hot water is needed the valve diverts the cool water from the supply pipe into a storage facility until a preset temperature is reached when hot water can be supplied. The stored water can then be used for flushing toilets, watering the garden etc. This system is cheap to install and can be fitted and then forgotten about, proving that there are simple solutions to benefit the environment and save money.

  • Perfect Piece - designed by Jim Hunt

    All the bakers out there will love the Perfect Piece. Cooking the perfect pie is one thing, but achieving the perfect slice is an entirely different issue. How many of us have found that the slice is ruined when cutting the pie? With this solution, you really can have the perfect slice. Just pop an insert into your baking tray, make the pie, cook it as usual, cut along the edges of the insert, and lift out the first clean slice of pie.