If you live your life with efficiency in mind, then you want to make sure that everything you own, including your toilet, can fit in with this ethos. You might not think that toilets differ in efficiency, but believe it or not, toilets can account for up to 30% of your total household water consumption. Therefore, it’s essential to know the criteria for choosing a toilet that will save water in the long run.
Here’s our guide on what to look out for when selecting a highly efficient toilet.
1. Know how a high-efficiency toilet works
Regular toilets remove your waste using water volume. That means, when you press your flush button, a large volume of water is sent down the toilet that displaces what’s already in there. As you could imagine, this is a huge waste, especially if there’s a better way to do things. High-efficiency toilets work by using water velocity rather than volume, which means you can get the same effect by using less water. This is way better for your water bill and the environment.
2. Use the WaterSense rating
Much like you’d get with any other appliance, toilets are often sold with an efficiency rating. Named the WaterSense rating, this number allows you to get a feel for how much water will be used for each flush. The US standard for toilets is 1.6 gallons per flush, and unfortunately, only about 37% of households actually meet this rating. High-efficiency toilets use 1.28 gallons per flush. For more information on the rating of toilets on the market, you should read feature lists and reviews of the toilets you are interested in. If everyone used WaterSense compliant toilets, 520 billion gallons of water would be saved each year.
3. Look for a toilet with a dual flush
If you want to take your toilet efficiency one step further, you can choose a toilet that has a dual flush system. You’ll find that these systems have two flush buttons: one for a full flush and one for a half flush. The full flush will still flush lower than the federal standard of 1.6 gallons per flush, but the half flush will use even less. This means that if you don’t need much power to remove your waste, you don’t have to use so much water.
4. Leave it up to a smart toilet
Your home is powered by smart appliances so why should your toilet be any different? You can install a smart toilet that will take care of your water efficiency needs. These units feature automatic flushing and overflow protection, but also allow you to control it using Bluetooth. These state of the art toilets are also made to be water efficient, and because you don’t have to worry about flushing it yourself, then it can decide how much water it needs to use to flush. It will make your life so much easier.
For the efficiency-minded, setting up your home to waste less energy and resources is a no-brainer. However, you probably didn’t realize that you can also include your toilet in your list of efficient home goods. Use this guide to help you select an efficient toilet so that you can start saving water and giving back to the environment.