How much water is consumed by a conventional toilet system?
A lot.
Low flow toilets can significantly reduce the amount of water consumed.
Low flow toilers are a useful addition especially if you are running a commercial establishment with a lot of toilets requiring a lot of use every day. Imagine the amount of water you can conserve – that alone is worth the upfront investment you make to change it to a low flow mode.
Here’s the stuff on low flow toilets in detail.
The average U.S. household (2.64 people) equipped with low-flow toilets saves 25 gallons of water per day, or more than 9,000 gallons per year.
If the toilets in your home are from the mid-1990s or earlier, consider installing new ones to save big on your water bills. All new models are “low-flow” toilets — by law they can use no more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush. Prior to 1994, most toilets on the market used at least 3.5 gallons, or about 20 gallons of water per person per day — the most water used by any household appliance. What a waste! Not only did this add to your water bills, but as recent droughts and water shortages remind us, clean water is a resource we need to conserve. Low-flow toilets can come in handy.
Kinds of Toilets
To be an informed shopper, it helps to know the two basic kinds of toilets available on the market.
- Gravity-flush toilets. These are conventional toilets for residential use that have been engineered to use less water. When you press the knob, a flush valve opens and the water in the tank drains into the bowl through rim openings and a siphon jet. The force of the water pushes the waste through the trap and down the drainpipe. While they are usually less effective at removing solid waste than pressure-assist toilets (described below), gravity-flush toilets are generally less expensive and easier to maintain, because most use standard parts.
- Pressure-assist toilets. Best suited for commercial use or in homes with poor drainpipe carry, these models use the pressure of the water supply to the toilet to compress air in an inner tank. When you flush the toilet, pressurized water is forced into the bowl, blasting waste down the drainpipe. Pressure-assist toilets have a distinctive whoosh sound that’s much louder than gravity-flush toilets, but they are more effective in removing solid waste.
