Water Efficiency

There are some significant advantages to urinals when it comes to bathroom maintenance (I won't go into the messy details of splashing that happens when males stand and urinate into a toilet). With ultra-efficient urinals (often called one-pint urinals) and waterless urinals, there are also very significant water savings that are achieved.

You would think that establishing a definition for “showerhead” would be simple. But, as the Department of Energy (DOE) is discovering after issuing a draft interpretive rule on the matter, nothing is simple when it comes to getting people wet.

Some showerhead background
Back in early 1994, under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) of 1975, all showerheads manufactured in the U.S. could have a maximum flow no greater than 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) at 80 psi. The intent, of course, was to save water, particularly hot water and its associated energy use.

What is a Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV)?

Although EPA’s criteria for WaterSense labeled new homes were only recently released, custom and production builders from Georgia to Arizona, from Montana to Hawaii, are signing up. With typical overall water savings of more than 20 percent compared to other homes, WaterSense homes are just that—sensible.

A custom builder (and remodeler) perspective

Niagara Conservation has introduced a new toilet that's unlike anything on the market. It uses passive "vacuum-assist" technology to deliver a very quiet, effective flush that consumes just 0.8 gallons (3.0 liters)--making it, I believe, the most water-conserving of any flush toilet on the market.

Who knew there would be so many ways to flush a toilet!

When we talk about the environment and environmentally responsible building, it’s almost always energy that takes the spotlight, with water pretty far down the list. But it’s not hard to see just how much of a back seat driver water can be:

• We don’t have any substitutes for clean water and we use a ton of it every day. Actually, more like a ton and a half; the typical US household uses 400 gallons of water a day and that’s about 3200 pounds! (Source: EPA WaterSense)

The coastal community of Small Point shuts down its water supply in winter, which forced Laura Sewall to find an alternative source of water. A well was one option, but the high mineral content in local groundwater would have required treatment. More than that, Laura did not want to interfere with the area’s delicate hydrological balance.