This is a guest post from Ryan Arroyo of ConservationTutorials.org - a blog that offers weekly advice on DIY projects to help you save water, energy, and gas in your home.
Why purchasing a high-efficiency toilet is a good investment.
If I told you that you could make a 158% annualized return by investing in a high-efficiency toilet, you might tell me to take a hike. With the stock market in the tanks, you might also be tired of hearing about another investment where you can make huge returns with little or no risk. No way, right? The truth is, with water getting more and more expensive every day, especially for those located in the southwestern United States, investing in a water saving toilet is an extremely good choice. Let me explain why:
For the sake of this example, let’s say you live in a 2 bedroom house with 1 other person. Let’s also assume you and your fellow house-mate use 300 gallons of water collectively each day. (150 gallons is a commonly used metric for daily water use) Multiplying that daily water use by 30 days gives us our monthly water use of 9,000 gallons. Finally, let’s assume that the toilet in your bathroom is using 3.5 gallons per flush, a very common rate for a toilet that is a few years old.
After being convinced by my pitch in the first paragraph, you go out and purchase a new high efficiency toilet for $300. This new toilet uses only 1.28 gallons per flush, a 63% improvement in water efficiency! Multiplying your total monthly water use by the percentage of water used by toilets (around 30%), gives us the number of total gallons used by our toilet, 2880 gallons in this example. Since our new toilet is 63% more water efficient, it will save us 1814 gallons each month!
Now, we need to quantify those saved gallons, in order to calculate how much money that is saving us. Out here in California, water costs about $0.006 dollars per gallon, or a sixth of a penny. The new toilet saves you 1814 gallons per month, which when multiplied by the price per gallon, is a net savings of $10.73 per month, or $128.78 per year. If the expected life of this new toilet is 6 years, it will cost you $50 per year, yet you are saving $128.78 per year. A 158% return on your money!
So the next time your broker asks you if you would be interested in shares of pork bellies or oranges, tell him, “No thanks, I’m already long in high-efficiency toilets!”
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What is not accounted for in the above calculation though, is the “high-efficiency” toilet’s inability to flush. I have a few of these new toilets in our house, and they are constantly backing up. I would say 20% of the time they do not do what they are supposed to. For thoroughness, I would suggest adding the cost of 1 flooding a year. That may just balance the savings out.
Gotta agree with Davis on this one. In fact I’d be tempted to go the opposite and buy a pressurized flush system just to avoid clogs.
We got one at Home Depot for less than $150 when I cracked the old toilet making what was supposed to be a simple repair. Grr….. I was skeptical of its flushing power like Doug and Davis above, but it had an 8 out of 10 flush rating according to Home Depot so I gave it a shot.
We’ve never had a problem with the flushing power and it barely uses any water at all when it flushes. I think these have gotten much better over time.
While it is true that HET’s are a good investment, make sure you get a WaterSense listed toilet. They have been tested by a third party to confirm it will work. I suspect the first two comments (products that didn’t work well) may be some of the original ULF’s (Ultra Low Flush) 1.6 GPF toilets and yes there were many problems with them.
Regarding the savings quoted, the range of water use varies greatly across the country. The average is 90 to 160 gallons, with a portion of that being for outside irrigation. Inside water use is closer to 60 to 80 gallons per day and the statistical percentage of use by the water closet (toilet) is 26.7. Because the basis for savings in the article are averages and rounded off numbers the results are flawed.
To get down to the nitty gritty, when you replace a 3.5 gpf with a 1.28 gpf, the savings per flush is 2.22 gpf. The statistical average of flushes per day per person is 5 to 6. If for this example we use 6 flushes per day, times 2 people the water savings is 26.64 gpd. For a 30 day month, the savings would be 799.2 gallons.
Just as with water use, water rates vary around the country. Some areas have a flat rate (i.e. Sacramento) where no amount of water savings will put any dollars back in your pocket. I’ll cover the other extreme in a few lines. Another savings to consider is sewer discharge rates which can be 2 to 4 times as much as the water rate. BUT sewer rates also vary, in some areas sewer costs are also flat rated.
If you’re in an area with flat rates, nothing you do will have any monetary benefit for you. But you may avoid water shortages or an increase in the flat rates you are now charged.
To compute your actual saving you have to find out what your water and sewer rates are. Typically they will be on your bill and stated in CCF (one hundred cubic feet). Since a cubic foot of water is 7.48052 gallons, one CCF is 748.053 gallons. If that is the case add the water and sewer rate to get the combined rate. Divide the gallons saved by 748.052, and multiply that by the combined water/sewer rate to find out your dollar savings.
The highest water rates I’ve found are, believe it or not, in Seattle at 3.406/CCF. The sewer rate is also quite high at 6.56/CCF. The combined rate is 9.97/CCF. If my water savings as shown in my example is 799.2 gallons per month, the dollar savings calculate out to $10.65.
If however I’m in Chicago where the combined rate is 1.772 the dollar savings is $1.89
A few more sample of the dollar savings per month based on combined rates of a selection of cities:
Albuquerque $4.06
Atlanta $8.67
Colorado Springs $5.05
El Paso $3.51
Fresno $2.91
Los Angeles $5.09
Omaha $2.47
Portland $8.14
San Francisco $7.58
The median for the 50 largest US cities is $4.59.
With a 10 year life span the saving for the median would be $551.35 on a $300 investment. Just take into account that is if the water and sewer rates stay the same.
I hope this info is helpful.
why not just fill up a 1/2 gallon jug and put it in the tank of your existing toilet. That would save you some money at no cost for new toilet. I’ve tried 1 gallon jug, but it won’t fit.
They’re also toilet they make that have 2 different flushes for your purpose. i.e. pull up for #1 and down for #2. it uses less water for #1 and more for #2. That would alleviate some of your pressure problems noted in the comments above.