As we head into winter, saving water isn’t a high priority on most people’s minds. However, the tight economic times may make some of us think twice before the expensive summer months arrive. There are a number of ways to save so I’m going to mention a few water saving products that can drastically reduce your water usage. The most impressive is Caroma, a company based in Australia, who is noted for their extremely efficient designs. Toto and Jaclo also have great design combined with an ecofriendly construction.
Since so much of Australia is arid desert, Caroma have been influenced by their environment to adapt in order to sustain a comfortable human lifestyle. Their toilets utilize a dual-flush mode and operate with a small liquid usage (1.28 or .8 gallons/flush). Dual-flushing toilets have two levers to allow the necessary amount of water to be used. The smaller lever initializes a smaller flush for liquid waste, and the larger lever gives almost twice that amount of water for solid waste. These are consider high-efficiency toilets (HET) and Caroma is recognized by WaterSense as complying with their regulations.
Caroma also provides waterless urinals, which are ideal for apartments where one or two men live. New technology with one-way flow valves allow the urinals to be much more pleasant than the garden variety found in public. Since they use no water and have no adverse smell, what’s not to like? However there are few of them used in home settings, and I’m sure some contractors will look at you funny, but the benefits are clear, especially for a bachelor pad.
Toto also brings an innovation rare to U.S. bathrooms, which is the washlet. It’s a Japanese hybrid of a toilet and a bidet. It uses a little bit of warm water and then heated air to clean the user after they’re done. It’s coming into fashion slowly, and definitely makes for an odd conversation piece, yet I think it’s more sanitary than the toilet paper standard that’s so prevalent here. If you want to accommodate those who prefer the standard way of doing things, obviously it can function as a regular toilet as well. This is the Porsche™ of bidets. I could talk more about these, so I’ll do a separate bidet/washlet article later on, and how to integrate it with interior design.
They also tout a robust dual-flushing system.
By comparison, Jaclo is the most normal of these three plumbing designers. They provide only bath installation products, like shower heads, faucets, valves, spouts and accessories. However they disguise their environmentally friendly plumbing products with the appearance of luxury. They recently partnered with WaterSense to ensure that they meet water saving standards. Their products with now feature a 1.5 or 1.75 gallon per minute flow without sacrificing performance or comfort. Combining their faucets and showerheads with one of the toilet systems from Toto or Caroma will greatly reduce your usage of water. These sorts of preventative measures will ease your impact on the environment and on your wallet.
Jaclo Rain Canopy
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