High Efficiency Toilets Washington DC

Green messages abound these days. Some are worth listening to. Many are merely noise and distraction that don’t amount to much. Admittedly, it’s hard to know what’s legit and what is little more than eco-marketing ploy. And of the stuff that’s environmentally legit, it’s hard to distinguish the high-quality green products from those that suffer from really good intentions but a lack of corresponding business skill and manufacturing acumen.

So when a dazzling High Efficiency Toilet (HET) comes along that truly delivers on its promise to curtail water use and still ensure that everything – yes everything – goes down the toilet in one flush, it’s worth taking note. Before I left Brooklyn earlier this summer and moved to the mountains surrounding Asheville, North Carolina, I installed a Niagara Ecologic Toilet (about $350) in my apartment that utilizes only 1.28 gallons of water per flush. That’s down from 1.6 gallons for standard toilets purchased today (and about 2.8 gallons for toilets purchased over fifteen years ago). Doesn’t sound like much of a difference? Well, if that toilet were flushed, say, 10 times a day, an HET toilet would save 3.2 gallons of water per day, or about 1150 gallons of water over the course of a year. That’s a lot of water for just one toilet to save.

So what’s the rub? Toilets are expensive to buy and every expensive to install. I’m amazed at how much my plumber charged me. In fact, one of the best paying green jobs I can think of would be as a green plumber specializing in the installation of water efficient products. Trust me, you would make bank while working to protect the planet. And this is also why I still think that installing a low-flow showerhead makes much more financial and environmental sense as an initial step when greening your home.

On the flip side, the good news about toilets is that at Toi...