the water conservation trend
Saving water without compromising Kohler performance
An interview with
ROB ZIMERMAN
Senior Staff Engineer – Water Conservation Initiatives
Kohler Co.
Q: What is Kohler’s approach to saving water?
Zimmerman: When it comes to water conservation, the main focus at Kohler is to make sure our customers’ experience with our products is not compromised. Thanks to a deep reservoir of engineering and design talent and to the investment in advanced software and other technology about 15 years ago, Kohler has always met — and usually exceeded — all water conservation regulations imposed on the industry over the last 12 years. In fact, products developed at Kohler continually push the performance envelope while transparently saving water. At Kohler, we call this “conservation without compromise.”
Q: What are the trends in water conservation?
Zimmerman: The trends are pretty easy to identify: on the one hand, we’re anticipating more regulation of water consumption in more areas of the U.S. and of the world; and on the other, there is a continued emphasis on technology-based solutions, where Kohler remains well ahead of the industry curve. Water shortages tend to be regional, sometimes with acute local or municipal shortfalls. The fastest growing regions are affected first. In the U.S., that’s the West and the Sunbelt, especially California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, and Florida — plus New England and New York City primarily because of aging infrastructure. Globally, the countries with the greatest issues are Australia, because they’ve been in an extended drought, and China, because of their tremendous economic growth.
Most of these regions tend to be, for lack of a better term, water poor. Whether it’s surface water or ground water, these regions have fixed water supplies that are being stretched to serve more and more people. Naturally then, water use regulations are more aggressive in water poor regions. In the U.S., water use regulations are most stringent in California and the Southwest. Globally, it’s Australia that’s most aggressive, but we’re closely watching how China will balance rapid growth against fixed water resources. A substantial majority of water is consumed by agriculture and industry, but what we call indoor water use — that is, water that is used in homes or commercial buildings — is also important, and, of course, it’s in this area that Kohler products can help.
Q: What consumes the most water in the home?
Zimmerman: In most homes, toilets consume the most water — usually between 25 percent and 33 percent. That’s the reason toilets were mandated to go from 3.0 or more gallons per flush to 1.6 gallons per flush in the Energy Policy Act of 1992. As I’ve said, the research and development investments that Kohler made to optimize flushing technology have impacted the design of all contemporary Kohler toilets. Reducing water consumption by 20 percent reduces the potential flushing and cleaning energy by 20 percent. Each time you reduce water consumption of a toilet, you have to reengineer how the product works to maintain performance. Our ability to use very sophisticated computational fluid dynamics software modeling to study flow, rethink tolerances, and redesign trapways gives Kohler engineers and designers an advantage as new regulations further reduce allowable water consumption.
Q: Are more water use regulations for toilets on the horizon?
Zimmerman: More stringent water consumption regulations are on the horizon, but in the U.S. they’re likely a few years off at least. There’s a bill pending in California, for example, to phase in a 1.3 gallon per flush — gpf, for short — standard for toilets starting in 2009. And the Environmental Protection Agency has announced a program called WaterSense that will help consumers identify high-performance, water-efficient toilets that use 1.3 gpf or less. These toilets are referred to as high-efficiency toilets — HET s, for short. That said, Kohler is ready for both California and WaterSense with a number of 1.28 gpf models already on the market. In fact, when it comes to HET s, Kohler is the leader, and nobody in the industry really comes close.
Q: What Kohler flushing technologies and toilets save water?
Zimmerman: Kohler has designed or refined several flushing systems that use at least 20 percent less water than a standard toilet— and I’ll quickly offer highlights on each of them. And note that all of these products can help a building qualify for LEED water efficiency points. [See the “LED-ing the Way” sidebar. First there’s the Dual Force flushing technology offered on select toilets from STERLING . These are dual-flush toilets, offering users a choice of a 0.8 gallon light flush for liquid wastes or a 1.6 gallon flush for solid wastes. When we calculate an anticipated average flush volume, we have to know how many light flushes versus how many heavy flushes is typical. Some studies show that the ratio is about 4:1, while the California bill assumes a 2:1 ratio of light flushes to heavy. But even at a 2:1 ratio, Sterling’s Dual Force toilets would be 3.2 gallons for three flushes, or an average of about 1.1 gpf — clearly a very high-efficiency toilet! Dual Force toilets offer water savings plus great design and performance at a very attractive price. Next is the KOHLER Class Five flushing system that already offers an optional 1.4 gpf setting. This can save a typical family of four up to 2,000 gallons of water per year. And now Kohler also offers the new Class Five EcoSmart (EST) technology in the 1.28 gpf Cimarron Comfort Height Toilet. EcoSmart technology employs a flapperless flush tower design for consistent, reliable performance and easier actuation of the trip lever to prevent toilet “run-ons” that can waste water. The KOHLER San Raphael features Power Lite technology and is one of the first dual-flush toilets on the U.S. market to offer a 1.0 gallon light flush or a 1.4 gallon heavy flush. This flushing system uses a small pump to create a vigorous flush. It also allows that San Raphael to be designed with a low profile and very attractive aesthetic. And, lastly, there’s the re-designed, eco-friendly KOHLER Highline and Wellworth Pressure Lite toilets, available in either a 1.1- or 1.4-gallon flush model. Pressure Lite technology is perfect for high-use applications such as businesses, hotels, schools and airports where one-flush, no-plug performance is required. And with Kohler’s new re-designed bowl, the Highline and Wellworth 1.1 gpf models feature a much quieter flush than previous pressure-assist toilets So KOHLER offers a range of water-conserving flushing technologies at a variety of price points and in many styles. They’re here now and being used in homes and businesses, making Kohler the industry leader in high-efficiency toilets. Water conservation is just one of five categories where building designers can earn the needed 26 LED points to get a building certified. For example, a 20 percent savings of water earns one point and a 30 percent savings earns two. Arguably, some of the “easiest” points available are for water conservation, as earning them doesn’t add cost or require major modifications. All a designer or engineer has to do is specify plumbing products that — like the Kohler products mentioned in this Trends Talk — save water without compromising performance.
Q: What other water savings opportunities are available in commercial settings?
Zimmerman: When you look at water use commercially, the first issue is scale. There may be two or three toilets in a residence, but there may be 10 or 20, or even 200 or 300 toilets in an office complex or at an airport. Naturally, the potential for water savings is tremendously magnified. But in commercial settings there are also urinals, and here again, Kohler technology offers several choices. The standard urinal uses 1.0 gallon per flush. Kohler offers several models of urinals and flush valves that use 0.5 gpf. And the KOHLER Steward waterless urinal uses — as the name implies — none. Zero gpf. The potential water savings per fixture per year is about 40,000 gallons!
Q: How does this waterless urinal work?
Zimmerman: Waterless urinals produced by most other manufacturers utilize a cartridge that requires periodic replacements — it’s expensive and messy. But the KOHLER Steward features a cartridge-free integral trapway filled with KOHLER Waterless Urinal Sealing Liquid. This low-density sealant floats in the trapway to provide an odor-blocking barrier but allows liquid waste to pass through it. The urinal is shaped to eliminate splashing and drain virtually all liquid wastes. It’s as easy to clean as a bathroom sink!
Q: Let’s return to the home. Other than toilets, where is most water used?
Zimmerman: Residential toilets account for between 25 percent and 33 percent of indoor water use — we’ve covered that. People also shower regularly — showers account for about 20 percent of water use in the home. So here’s another big opportunity to reduce water use. The same federal law that mandated 1.6 gallons per flush for toilets also required all showerheads to use no more than 2.5 gallons per minute — gpm, for short. It’s not hard to reduce the flow on a showerhead, but most low-flow showerheads significantly degrade performance. Plus, a shower is more than
a showerhead; there’s a thermostatic- or a pressure-balancing valve behind the wall to maintain a consistent water temperature. If you replace a 2.5 gpm showerhead with, say, an ultra low-flow 1.0 gpm showerhead, you may compromise the functionality of the valve. The result can be temperature shifts that can be startling enough to cause the user to instinctively jump out of the stream and possibly slip and fall. It’s both a comfort and a safety issue. But the new 2.0 gpm KOHLER MasterShower Eco showerheads and handshowers — coupled with a precision-engineered KOHLER Rite-Temp valve — reduce water consumption by 20 percent without sacrificing the quality of water coverage or temperature control.
Q: And where is the rest of the water used in the house?
Zimmerman: Faucets are another 10 to 15 percent of indoor water use, with most of the remainder used in clothes washers — dishwashers use relatively little water. A standard faucet will use 2.2 gallons per minute, but aerators that add air to the stream for a softer feel and reduced splashing can bring that down to 1.5 gpm. Some aerators reduce water flow to as little as 0.5 gpm, Aerators are great for bathroom faucets, but not as practical in the kitchen where faucets are used for filling pots and other containers.
KOHLER MasterShower® relaxing Eco showerhead (top)
KOHLER MasterShower® relaxing three-way handshower (bottom)
Q: What about commercial faucets?
Zimmerman: In commercial settings, the trend is to go with more hands-free faucets and low-flow aerators to save water and improve hygiene. The infrared technology used in firstgeneration hands-free faucets was easily confused by variations in background lighting, reflections from surfaces, even clothing colors. Sometimes the sensor tripped too easily; sometimes it was it difficult to trip at all. But new Tripoint technology employed in KOHLER Touchless electronic faucets uses technology very similar to that of an autofocus digital camera to measure distance rather than reflectance to provide highly accurate, dependable performance with very few unintended activations. When your hands “ask” for water, it’s delivered. When you don’t ask, it isn’t. As Tripoint technology penetrates the marketplace, we’ll see more and more use of KOHLER Touchless faucets in modern commercial applications, including upscale public restrooms and medical facilities. While hands-free technology is generally used commercially, the reliability of the new Tripoint technology is behind an emerging trend in the use of touchless faucets at food prep or clean-up sinks in the residential kitchen for both water saving benefits and sanitary advantages.All the KOHLER technologies and products I’ve mentioned are part of the Kohler Co. commitment to Gracious Living which includes the creation of products that help conserve water without sacrificing performance or design.
