By Tommy Linstroth
Looking to conserve water and reduce your water bill? You may want to reevaluate what - or how much - you are flushing down the toilet.
Thanks to two types of toilet fixtures on the market today, water use can be cut by 40% every time you flush the handle or push the button, as the case may be.
Dual flush toilets are the first option. Exactly as the name implies, dual flush toilets have two buttons – one for a half flush (using 0.8 gallons) for liquid waste, the second a full flush (the standard 1.6 gallons) for solid waste. Every time the half flush option is used, a 50% water savings is realized. That’s almost one whole bottle of Evian not needed to flush. Two brands to consider are Caroma, Kohler and Toto.
The second water-efficient toilet fixture features the Sloan Flushmate IV in the tank. The Flushmate system requires only 1 gallon of water per flush – a 40% reduction over standard toilets (which rely on gravity to pull out waste).
The Flushmate system uses compressed air to force the water into the bowl and push out waste.
This vigorous flushing action not only requires less water, but it cleans the bowl better than gravity units.
The Flushmate IV system is available in toilets from a variety of manufacturers, including Capizzi, Eclipse, Mansfield Plumbing, Vitra, and Vortens. Just make sure to specify the 1 gallon per flush model – the Flushmate also comes in a 1.6 gpf version.
Water is a precious resource that must be carefully conserved – the less used for flushing toilets the better. By relying on either the dual flush or 1 gallon/flush toilets, you can easily use 40% less water. And, that is something you can take to the bank.
Tommy Linstroth is Head of Sustainable Initiatives for Melaver, Inc., a vertically-integrated, sustainable real estate firm based in Savannah, GA. He is also President of the Savannah chapter of the US Green Building Council.
