Submitted By: Jeff Kent (Jeff.Kent@rhi.com)
Challenge
I stumbled on a program from EBMUD where they pay you to replace your old water guzzling toilet. If you have a toilet that uses 3.5 gallons (or more) of water per flush, EBMUD will give you up to a $150 credit towards a WaterSmart high-efficiency toilets (HET). The program is currently in effect till June 30th, 2009. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to upgrade the 26 year old toilet in our master bathroom, reduce our water use, and save money on our water bill. The manufacturing date of our old toilet was stamped on the toilet tank cover.
I’m not sure how many gallons per flush our old toilet used, but guessing that it may have been close to 5 gallons per flush. I could have figured out the exact amount by doing a simple tank fill test. Doing a tank fill test involves the following steps: turn off the water to your toilet at the valve that sits just adjacent to the toilet, flush the toilet and then -refill the tank using a one gallon milk jug. Note how many times you have to fill the jug.
Solution Details
Our new HET toilet came with an air bladder which gives a much better, cleaner, faster flush that our previous “water only” toilet. Most of the pressure assist toilets that I looked at and considered come with the FLUSHMATE pressure assist bladder, so the HET pressure assist toilet choice itself comes down to aesthetics (i.e. do you like the way a given toilet looks). There are lots of models to choose from. This URL has a nice overview of how the Pressure Assist toilets work:
http://homerepair.about.com/od/plumbingrepair/ss/toilet_pressure.htm
There are many places to buy toilets. I did a little research and it seemed like Lowes had a slightly better selection of HET toilets than Home Depot. Lowes has stores in Antioch, Dublin & Livermore. The EBMUD website has an extensive list of local places to buy toilets and approved (for the rebate) toilet models.
I installed the toilet myself. Toilet replacement is pretty straight forward and very doable for the homeowner. It helps to have 2 people when it comes to lift the old toilet up and putting the new toilet down. Just remember to buy a toilet installation kit (available at Ace Hardware), if one didn't come with your toilet. When it comes to plumbing, never try and re-use old parts.
Right after I installed the toilet and did a couple of test flushes and I was surprised to discover the tank above the toilet doesn't fill up with water like a conventional toilet. I kept expecting the tank to fill up and it didn't. I assumed the toilet was defective until I read the manual. The water is there to help pressurize the air bladder. I was also very impressed at the force and speed of the flush!
Benefits & Payback
Right away we noticed a big drop in water usage on our EBMUD bill. Our new toilet is also cleaner, flushes faster, and saves a lot of water--even more than we realized. And with EBMUD charging more and more for water, our savings will only go up in the future.
From the EBMUD web site: "It is estimated that these high efficiency toilets can save over 8,000 gallons of water per year for a family of four over the standard 1.6 gallon/flush toilets." So even going from a 1.6 GPF to 1 a GPF toilet can result in huge water savings.
Informational Links
http://ebmud.com/conserving_&_recycling/residential/toilet_replacement_rebate/
