The City of Toronto has set a goal to reduce their projected water demands by 15% by 2011. To
accomplish this goal, the City created a Water Efficiency Plan that outlined water reduction
targets, budgets, and implementation schedules. Almost 50% of the expected average daily water
savings is to come from the replacement of inefficient toilets within the City.
Toronto is expecting to save 380 MGD (100 ML/d) of water by replacing 732,000 toilets and
paying more than US$30 million ($42.6 million CDN) in rebates. The question is, "How does a
City achieve their water savings target when 3.5-gallon toilets are still available and legal to
install in replacement situations?"
The answer is to target only those fixtures whose life cycle is completed (i.e., toilets that are
approximately 25-years old and being replaced anyway) and to offer enough of a rebate to make
1.6-gallon toilets the "fixture of choice" when homeowners and property managers are faced with
the decision of which toilet to select. As an additional inducement to the homeowners, Toronto's
water rates (presently at US$3.20 per 1000 gallons) are currently increasing by 9% annually,
helping to make water saving 1.6-gallon models even more attractive. The paper discusses the following criteria that Toronto intends to adopt for pre-qualifying toilet models:
be shipped with proper trim components (high level of quality control);
flush at or very near 1.6 gallons when installed properly (high level of quality control);
use fill valves that do not "creep" and are consistent even with fluctuations in pressure;
use standard or proprietary flappers (non-adjustable flush volumes);
use beaded flapper chains only (no "hang ups", consistent flush volumes);
flush at least 250g of solids (MaP testing benchmark); and,
not exceed maximum tank volume of 1.8 gallons (currently being considered). Includes figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 290 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 6 |
| Published : | 01/11/2004 |
