Green Home Tips presented by Lutron
Replacing old, inefficient toilets with those that deliver performance and function is a smart move.
Years ago, if a plumber told you that your toilet needed to be replaced, you’d have had a right to be skeptical. It’s historically been pretty rare--darn near impossible, in fact--for a toilet to actually break, thanks to the typically tough vitreous china and straightforward construction with replaceable moving parts.
But today, water consumption is the big issue, and if any of your home’s toilets date to 1994 or earlier, you stand to save a lot of money by switching them out for the current generation of high-efficiency toilets (HETs).
High-efficiency toilets are worlds apart from the low-flow toilet models that debuted in the early 1990s, and WaterSense-labeled HETs provide dependable performance on 1.28 gallons of water or less per flush.
According to the EPA, a family of four that replaces higher-flow toilets with high-efficiency toilets stands to save an average of more than $110 per year on water bills and as much as $2,200 over the lifetime of the HETs themselves. What’s more, many local utilities offer special rebates and vouchers to residents ready to make this water-saving toilet investment.
A wide variety of high-efficiency toilet styles and price points make it easy to find the right fit for your household, with one- and two-piece designs and such features as right-height sizing and elongated bowls. To learn more about HET advantages and browse product information, visit the EPA’s
WaterSense website .
