Toilets

What To Look For

Toilet's account for 26.7 percent of water consumption in the home, and older models use far more water than newer designs. If the bathroom fixtures in your home were installed prior to 1992, replacing your toilet with a more efficient one could save thousands of gallons of water annually, between 14,000 and 25,000 gallons for a family of four.

Below are some basic criteria to use when shopping:

Gallons per Flush

Toilets are rated based on their gallons per flush (gpf). Low-flow toilets, using 1.6 gpf or less, are now the federal standard, but models are becoming increasingly more efficient. High-efficiency toilets use 1.3 gpf, and others use as little as 1.2 gpf. Dual-flush toilets have two gpf rates (solids are flushed at the higher 1.6 gpf rate, while liquids use 1.1 gpf or less ), and some composting toilets use no water at all.

EPA WaterSense Rated

The EPA's new WaterSense label, launched for toilets in early 2007, requires toilets to be independently tested to show that they use, at most, 1.28 gpf and that they can successfully flush 350 grams of test media. Dual-flush toilets, those that have a full-flush mode for solids and a reduced-flush mode for liquids, must use 1.6 gpf and .8 gpf respectively (the combined average flush rate for these toilets is 1.28 gpf). Because the label is still new, many manufacturers have yet to complete certification.

Maximum Performance (MaP) Testing

Maximum Performance Testing is a collaborative program between the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association and the California Urban Water Conservation Council, which tests the ability of a toilet model to completely remove solids in a single flush. The program determines the maximum amount, in grams, that a model can effectively remove, and recommends that all models be capable of removing at least 250 grams of solids.