When you have a home or business to keep up with, you want to save all the money you can while maintaining good performance. One area you can save a lot of money is by swapping out an older toilet for a low-flow model. Using 30 percent of our water supply, toilets are the largest user of water in your home. Older toilets used between 3-6 gallons of water per flush. The new standard is 1.6 gallons per flush, which reflects significant savings. Here are a few types and why they save you some serious cash.
How Low Can You Go? How Low-Flush Toilets Save Money
The Standard: 1.6 Gallons per Flush
The new standard is 1.6 gallons of water per flush, which averages 11,680 gallons per year. By comparison, a 5-gallon flush toilet consumes 36,500 gallons per year and a 3.5-gallon flush consumes 25,550 gallons per year. Even just changing out an old toilet for the new standard will make a significant impact on your monthly bill, potentially seeing savings of up to 20 percent.
The Water-Sense: 1.25 Gallons per Flush
Newer low-flush toilets often follow the Water-Sense standard of 1.25 gallons per flush. That's 9,125 gallons per year or 2,555 gallons that would be saved by spending a few more dollars on a low-flush toilet instead of going with the new standard. But that's still not the best you can expect.
The Dual-Flush: 1.1 to 1.6 Gallons per Flush
A newcomer to the scene, dual-flush toilets are beginning to make appearances in hardware and home improvement stores all over the country. The concept behind a dual-flush toilet is simple. You use a low flush of 1.1 gallons to flush most of the time and the higher flush of 1.6 gallons when you need to clear the bowl of any leavings. Though it takes a little getting used to and may require some explanation to younger members of the household, this option saves a half gallon of water for most flushes compared to the new standard. The breakdown? A cool 7,000 gallons of water used a year. They're also coming down significantly in price.
By changing out your existing older toilet for a newer, low-flush model, you can save a lot of money. So what's stopping you? If you need help getting a new water-efficient toilet installed in your home or business, contact Stahl Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, your trusted Pittsburgh plumbing service.