High-Efficiency Toilets

L. David Roper
http://www.roperld.com/personal/roperldavid.htm
January 2008

One way to save water and energy together is to install high-efficiency toilets (HET) in all new and remodeled structures. Older toilets (before 1992) use about 3.5 gallons/flush. Toilets made since 1992 use 1.6 gpf. HETs use about 1.1 gallons/flush. About 30% of the water used inside a residence is toilet-flush water. Look for the EPA WaterSense label on the toilet.

Changing a 3.5 gpf toilet to a 1.1 gpf toilet will payoff in one to two years. When you make such a change, it is ok to take the working 3.5-gpf toilet to the nearest Habitat for Humanity ReStore for resale, as it will save someone from buying a new toilet which will save energy and materials.

This purpose of this article is to make it easy to find information about available high-efficiency toilets.

High-Efficiency Toilets (HET) (1.28 gallons or less per flush): about 50 different models by about 9 companies

Sterling elongated dual-force toilets:

This is the toilet I have and it works great! The water level is very low in the bowl, which prevents splash. The two flushes use 0.8 and 1.6 gallons per flush. The cost is slightly over $200; it cost more than that to install it. I will probably install the next one myself, now that I have one to observe. I find that the low-volume flush (0.8 gallons/flush) works for small quantities of solids as well as for liquid.

Other WaterSense-label products.

Incentives for High-Efficiency Toilets

Toilet-composting systems