A startup in the U.S. West Coast city of San Francisco has developed a shower head that creates a mist by atomizing water, instead of making it rain down.

    The concept is not new, but engineers with Nebia, the San Francisco firm, claim to have reinvented and maximized the device's atomizing potential to save up to 70 percent of water during each shower.

    Fourth year into the worst drought in decades, when people in California are being told to cut down 25 percent of their water consumption, saving water also means saving money.

    Philip Winter, Nebia's chief executive officer and co-founder, believes the shower head can help save a sizable amount of water worth up to 400 U.S. dollars per year for each household.

    "It creates millions of tiny droplets while expanding the surface the water can reach up to ten times," Winter told Xinhua. By maximizing the surface, he said, the mist cleans faster, while rinsing shampoo and soap just as cascading water.

    To prove their point, Winter and Nebia's another co-founder Carlos Gomez Andonaegui tested the water nozzle at a chain of gyms in San Francisco as well as Google and Apple offices, and waited nine months for the results.

    They received good news, since the gyms and the high-tech companies reported savings of thousands of dollars during that period.

    "The amount of water saved using Nebia is outstanding...the shower head is installed immediately, without any hassle," Winter said, adding that the showering experience is great. "It has nothing to do with a regular shower, it's a mist enveloping your body. It's just... amazing."

    The idea sparked in Gomez Andonaegui's mind five years ago. As general manager of a chain of gyms in Mexico City, he would always struggle to find ways to save, especially on utilities.

    His father, an engineer, came up with the first prototype and Gomez Andonaegui and Winter decided to move to San Francisco to open their startup.

    Now, California's state Public Utilities Department as well as San Francisco's municipal authority began to study how to implement Nebia's system and shower nozzles in public spaces.

    "They are just looking into the idea as of now, but if the drought gets worse, we may move things faster," Winter said.

    Nebia's team is exploring other uses for the water atomizer, like in agriculture, a sector that has been hit hard during the last three dry years in California.