The Lowdown on Water

  • By M.L. Dehm For The Herald
  • Thursday, February 18, 2010 10:48am

Some homeowners want to go green. Others are just looking to save money. Whatever the reason, renovating a home’s plumbing can have a big impact on water and energy savings. Two items that can be water or energy hogs are toilets and water heaters.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, toilets account for nearly 30 percent of the average home’s indoor water consumption. Replacing older toilets in a home could save homeowners nearly 11 gallons per fixture per day.

Unfortunately, some homeowners are leery of a toilet upgrade because they remember the initial problems that ensued when the industry had to adopt the 1.6-gallon flush plumbing mandate a few years ago.

“A lot of the manufacturers just changed the water volume and not the design of the toilet,” said Dave Derring, service manager for Southwest Plumbing.

The result was a number of toilets with the same bowl shape but kitted out with a smaller water tank — a combination that clearly did not work. Consumers found they had to flush more than once to move the

waste.

What was needed was an elongated bowl with a more streamlined waste path. Fortunately, high end manufacturers such as Toto, American Standard and Kohler quickly recognized this and changed the whole design of the low flow toilet, not just the tank, to offer the same or better performance at the new reduced water level.

Other companies are now following suit. To assist consumers who want to replace their older model toilets with a more efficient model, the Environmental Protection Agency has created the WaterSense labeling system. A toilet that bears the WaterSense label has been certified by independent testing laboratory to meet rigorous criteria for both performance and efficiency.

The Environmental Protection Agency Web site offers a long list of brands and models that are WaterSense certified. Many of these are by American Standard. According to Michael Friedberger, project manager for chinaware at American Standard, response to the company’s WaterSense models has been extremely positive.

“Feedback that we are getting from customers in the field about American Standard high efficiency toilets is very favorable,” Friedberger said. “These toilets flush with 1.28 gallons of water per flush or less, which is at least 20 percent less water than current 1.6 gallon per flush low-flow toilets, and 60 percent less water than old 3.5 gallon per flush toilets.”

Another innovation that is becoming better known is the dual flush mechanism. This feature allows the consumer to use an ultra low flush for liquid waste and a little more powerful flush to move solids. American Standard’s new H2Option Siphonic dual flush toilet also has a patented PowerWash Rim” feature that is said to keep the bowl cleaner.

Friedberger said that customers have been “amazed” that, unlike other dual flush brands, his company’s H2Option toilet has a water surface in the bowl which looks like a standard toilet and also has a siphon flush like a standard toilet. Yet this model is said to flush solids even on the low 1.0 gallon flush setting.

But toilets aren’t the only plumbing item that can make a green impact. Hot water heaters are another area of focus. A tankless hot water heater can save energy over a standard tank hot water heater and may even qualify for federal tax savings. But they are not suitable for everyone.

Tankless hot water heaters — sometimes referred to as demand or instantaneous water heaters — provide hot water only as it is needed. That means there is no ongoing use of energy to maintain the temperature of water in a storage tank. Only when the hot water tap is turned on does the tankless heater kick into life and superheat incoming water to meet that demand.

In theory, the tankless hot water heater can offer an unlimited supply of hot water at just a fraction of the energy. The reality, however, is not so clear cut. Unlike standard water heaters with their large ready reservoir of hot water, the tankless unit can only produce so much hot water at any one time and it takes time to get it to the user.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the typical tankless model is churning out at a rate of just three to five gallons per minute. If a home has a low flow showerhead that meets the agency’s recommended flow rate of 2.5 gallons per minute, that would mean only one other low-demand fixture could be used while the shower was in use. In the case of high flow rain showers or full body showers, no other hot water could be demanded while the shower was in use.

“Lots of people are looking for green, but they don’t always understand the ramifications of what green might mean,” said Bruce Davis Sr.

Davis is the president of Day &Nite Plumbing and Heating. He is also a certified trainer for continuing education in his industry. “A tankless water heater is supposed to replace a whole house system. It is supposed to supply more than just one fixture. The reality is that it will handle no more than three fixtures at once,” he said.

This means that tankless hot water heaters are not a good choice for large families or households with a high hot water demand. Another consideration is installation cost. While the unit itself may not be expensive, it is not uncommon for a home’s gas piping to require upgrading to run it.

“Tankless water heaters consume about three times the number of BTUs that a standard hot water heater takes,” said David Lalonde, service manager at Day &Nite Plumbing. “The piping that has already been installed out in the street and into your house may not be sized to handle that BTU load. So the customer not only is responsible to upsize their gas line, but they also have the responsibility to upsize their gas meter.”

Additionally, some plastic water pipes are not suitable for the tankless hot water system flow. Venting is another issue. The units need to be vented separately.

“I have found people who have hooked tankless heaters up to the same venting that their atmospheric tank was vented through, which is very dangerous. It can result in carbon monoxide poisoning. You can kill your family doing stuff like that,” Lalonde said.

Davis explained that the bottom line is, if a person is aware that no hot water is available until they turn on a tap and is willing to wait for it to travel to the tap, and there is not too high of a demand on the system at any one time, the savings can be great. His company plans to field questions about tankless hot water heaters at the Everett Home Show in March.

Finally, a solar hot water heater can be a backup to a tankless system or vice versa. It may also be used on its own. According to G&S Heating in Everett, homeowners may be able to save up to 90 percent on hot water heating through use of a solar hot water system.

Regardless of what product you decide to install, it’s important to research the facts and check covenants, codes and regulations before committing to the installation.

Day &Nite Plumbing &Heating

16614 13th Ave. W.

Lynnwood, WA 98037

(800)972-7000

www.dayandnite.net

G&S Heating

(866) 618-5616

Everett (425) 252-4402

Monroe (360) 794-7306

www.gsheating.com

Southwest Plumbing

Everett/ Mill Creek/South Snohomish (425) 513-8665

Lynnwood (425) 745-5993

Marysville/Arlington/ North Snohomish (360) 658-8898

www.southwestplumbing.biz

EPA WaterSense Toilet information

www.epa.gov/watersense/

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