Low Water Use Toilets
5 Tips for Choosing a Low-Flow Toilet
|  | | | Willem Maas is the Founder and Publisher of GreenHomeGuide |
Whether your motivation is environmental responsibility, saving money, or meeting building codes, installing a more efficient toilet is an effective and easy way to upgrade your home.
Toilets consume an average of 20.1 gallons of water per person, per day in a home with no water-conserving fixtures, according to the American Water Works Association. That's nearly 30 percent of an average home's daily per-person indoor water use. Upgrading from a 3.5 gpf (gallons per flush) toilet to a 1.6 gpf model will reduce one person's annual water use from 27,300 gallons to 12,500 gallons, according to the Federal Energy Management Program. Low-flow toilets save money, too: replacing the showerheads and toilets in their home is saving Atlanta homeowners Judith and Tim Vanderver $148 per month on their water bill.
5 Tips for Choosing a Low-Flow Toilet |
Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp- Buying A Toilet
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In your home the toilet uses the most water - accounting for approximately 30 per cent of indoor water use.
Prior to 1980 many toilets flushed with 20 litres of water. Then the 13-litre or "water saver" toilets became available in the early 1990s. They are still available in the marketplace. In 1996, the Ontario Building Code introduced legislation requiring 6-litre toilets for all new homes. Currently, no other province or territory has this legislation but some municipalities, such as Vancouver, have their own 6-litre bylaws. Six-litre toilets are often referred to as ultra-low-flush (ULF) toilets.
While many first generation 6-litre toilets did not perform well - today's 6-litre toilets have been re-engineered to flush in many cases, better than their 13-litre counterparts. Typically, toilets found in the Canadian market place have been tested by the Canadian Standards Association or an equivalent lab. A list of high-performing toilets can be found in the CMHC partnered study "Maximum Performance Testing of Popular Water-Efficient Toilet Models (MaP)". The full report can be found at www.cwwa.ca.
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Dual-Flush Toilet Fixtures- Field Studies and Water Savings
Do dual-flush toilet fixtures save more water than standard 1.6-gallons per flush (gpf) fixtures?
To date, five independent studies have been completed and published, each of which deals to
some degree with this topic. This paper summarizes the results of each of those studies as
presented in their final reports.
Dual-Flush Toilet Fixtures- Field Studies and Water Savings |
Dual Flush Toilet Testing
MHC, in partnership with 12 municipalities across Canada, conducted a pilot program to test dual-flush toilet technology in residential, commercial and institutional settings. Dual-flush toilet technology allows the user to select a short flush (three litres) or long flush (six litres).
CMHC funded research to assess the performance and user acceptance of dual-flush toilets. The project had three objectives:
1. to determine public perception, acceptance and satisfaction with dual-flush toilets
2. to field-test the performance of dual-flush toilets compared to 6-litre and 13-litre toilets in terms of consumption rates and equipment performance
3. to determine the cost-effectiveness of dual-flush toilets compared to 6-litre and 13-litre toilets.
Dual Flush Toilet Testing |
Two Flush: A Dual-Flush Retrofit for Your Favorite Bowl
From Treehugger:
Look through history and it's clear: inspiration comes in the loo. The low-flow showerhead, the waterless urinal, integrated sink/toilet, and group bathing are no doubt the product of inspired water closet thinking. A man named Joe Molho had such a moment of clarity while using his brother's dual-flush in Israel. Dual-flush toilets are a brilliant concept, and Europe and Asia have had them in effect for some time. They haven't made a whole lot of headway in the States, however. For those of us not ready to spring for a whole new system, a Canadian company called Aquanotion is offering the TwoFlush, a retrofit kit for your existing toilet. This $50 system replaces the inner mechanism of the tank but not the tank itself, and the installation (they claim) is a simple DIY job. Aquanotion also offers a replacement tank system for $115. The eco-cleverness of the dual-flush design, of course, is that the user is given the option of a partial flush for
Two Flush: A Gual-Flush Retrofit for Your Favorite Bowl |
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