This Just In
Symposium Speakers Reveal Top 5 Water-Saving Products
by Jim Camillo
August 20, 2008
John Koeller and Bill Gauley discuss their selections of the top five new and innovative water-saving products. Photos by Jim Camillo.
During yesterday’s opening afternoon session of an Emerging
Technology Symposium co-convened by IAPMO and WPC, researchers John Koeller
(Alliance for Water Efficiency) and Bill Gauley (Veritec Consulting, Inc.)
revealed their top five new and innovative water-saving products. Koeller and
Gauley noted that their presentation results were purposely left out of
informational materials given to attendees before the symposium began in
order to prevent any pre-event “leaking” of the winners.
Their top five products, presented in inverse order, are:
dual flush toilets, one-pint urinals, package graywater systems,
high-efficiency residential humidifers and high-efficiency pre-rinse spray
valves. According to Koeller and Gauley, the combined annual water savings of
these products, at just 5% market penetration, is more than 200 billion
gallons. They also said that only the humidifiers require any behavorial
modification for effective consumer use, namely basic maintenance.
Product selection criteria included: must use indoor water
only, water use that can be readily determined, general availability in the
marketplace and favorable economics, and real potential for significant
long-term water savings, whether potable or non-potable.
Participants make note of Koeller and Gauley’s selections.
As for one-pint urinals, they listed many manufacturers, including Zurn, Caroma, Sloan and Toto. “These urinals are my personal favorite alternative to the waterless urinal because they require just one-eighth of a gallon to work,” Koeller said.
When discussing package graywater systems, Gauley pointed out that these are off-the-shelf products designed for retrofit use to capture and treat graywater. Systems currently active in the marketplace are Aqus (by Sloan) and Rewater. Those still in development are being made by Pontos and Perpetual Water.
The type of high-efficiency residential humidifiers Gauley and Koeller listed as product number four are the contemporary flow-through models, and not the old drum units. The speakers noted that the use of these humidifiers is generally applicable to all cold-weather homes in the United States and Canada.
High-efficiency pre-rinse spray valves were selected for both their water and energy savings, noted Gauley and Koeller. EPACT requires a maximum flow rate of 1.6 gpm in the United States, yet some manufacturers have valves that use 1.3 gpm or less for even greater savings. Manufacturers mentioned were T&S Brass, Bricor and Fisher.
Gauley and Koeller said they hoped the naming of innovative water-saving products would become an annual occurrence.
Jim Camillo
camilloj@bnpmedia.com
Jim Camillo is Editor of PM Engineer magazine. He can be contacted at camilloj@bnpmedia.com, phone 630-694-4011, or fax 248-283-6547.
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