Green Homes—Water-Efficient Plumbing Fixtures

Efficient Products

Managing the country’s water supply is a rising concern, yet many Americans are unaware of how much water they waste. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that each person uses about 80 to 100 gallons of water per day and a lot of it goes down the toilet.

One program raising awareness is the Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program created in 2006. The voluntary partnership encourages consumer demand for water-efficient products and services, similar to the way the Energy Star program has created energy-saving awareness. So far, WaterSense has qualified products in two categories—toilets, and bathroom faucets and faucet accessories. The products have started to appear on store shelves with more available online or by special order. In addition, the marketplace offers options, such as waterless urinals.

Toilets

The first category targeted by WaterSense was toilets, the greatest home water consumer. The thought of more “low-flow” toilets may, at first, turn away homeowners. Some early attempts before WaterSense performed poorly as they tried to achieve the federal law of not exceeding 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf). One of their problems was requiring repeat flushes to remove waste.

But WaterSense specifications require both high efficiency and high performance. With new technology and design modifications, more than 60 toilets have earned the WaterSense label. They were independently tested and certified to perform as well as or better than their market counterparts while using an average of 20 percent less water per flush than the industry standard of 1.6 gallons. For those homes still using old toilets with 3.5- and 5-gallon flushes, the savings percentages are even greater.

These toilets accomplish the task using several methods: single flush gravity fed; pressure assist using a tank storage device or water line pressure; power assist using a small pump to force water at a higher velocity; and dual-flush gravity fed.