Green Tomorrow

I recently challenged myself on the subject of how many times a day I flush the toilet. Is this something most people, including myself think about on a daily basis? No. Is this something most people really care about? Maybe not. Is there reason to care at all? Well, do you live in the drought-stricken, water regulated, South Western United States? If so, you may want to be aware of how much water you’re consuming on a daily basis.

Well as it turns out, about 30% of the water used in most homes on a daily basis comes from toilet flushing. This being the case, how many times a day must we flush the toilet for that to be possible? I mean, my household has individuals who like long showers and I don’t think we’re uncommon. Can we flush away as much water as we shower away?

There are some obvious factors that could skew your personal results in a study like this. For instance, do you drink a lot of coffee? Are you male or female? Urinals tend to flush much less water than toilets, but that statistic would be invalid if you worked at home, considering most houses don’t have urinals installed. This is beside the point. Let’s look at my personal usage. I drink a lot of coffee, I’m male, I work at home and no I don’t have a urinal installed in my house.

Ok so how many times a day do I flush the toilet? At the time of this writing, a whopping 8 flushes a day! My toilet is a low-flow 1.6 gallon toilet so some quick usage of the window’s calculator and I’ve deduced my toilet water usage to be about 12.8 gallons a day. Hmmm, that would be over $30 a day if I was paying for that much milk.

How do I reduce that number? I already have a low-flow toilet… One way is to use a dual flush toilet. Dual flush toilets actually reduce water more than a standard low-flow toilet. In fact, according to a recent study by the CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) dual flush toilets actually reduce water usage by as much as 26% over low-flow toilets. It’s really easy to see why. You can convert a low-flow toilet into a dual flush system, or buy a 1.6 gpf dual flush toilet. The difference is that the half flush will only be 1 gallon, saving .6 gallons for most of your daily flushes.

With the rising cost of milk in my town, I think I know where I’ll be making a change.