Plumbing for Efficiency | Mechanical Business - Sloan Valve Company

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Jason Boyd is the LEED-accredited marketing manager for Dobbins Sales. He can be reached at jboyd@dobbinsales.com. REDUCING WATER USE The water use reduction prerequisite of LEED is based on a simple formula showing approximate usage in a building on an annual basis, calculated against a standard baseline performance. The baseline for commercial toilets is 6 litres per flush; commercial urinals is 3.8 litres per flush; private lavatory applications (hotel/motel or hospital patient rooms) is 8.3 litres per minute; other commercial lavatory faucets is 1.9 litres per minute; 0.95 litres per cycle for metering faucets; 9.5 litres per minute for commercial showerheads; and, finally, a flow rate equal to or less than 6.0 litres per minute for food service pre-rinse appliances. Things like commercial clothes or dish washers are excluded from the water efficiency calculations. By installing High Efficiency Toilets (HETs) and High Efficiency Urinals (HEUs) it becomes very easy to achieve the required percentage of water savings and gain the maximum number of points available in credit 3, (see page 50) water use reduction. Most manufacturers now offer things like 4.8 litre per flush commercial toilets, dual flush commercial toilet packages and HEUs that can deliver as little as 0.47 litres per flush. Another option to help achieve water use reduction points are water-free urinals, which have become more common over the past several years. Low-flow showerheads, faucet aerators, metering faucets and low consumption pre-rinse units all factor into the calculations, and can contribute to the overall water savings in any building. This is sometimes where people can confuse the fact that all of these high efficiency products are not LEED certified but merely assist in lowering overall potable water usage.
continued from page 48 when budgets and the green design process collide, every possible point is critical – meaning water efficiency is never overlooked, and can often be easier and less costly to achieve. Here is how the water efficiency section is broken down: PREREQUISITE 1 – water use reduction of 20% vs. Baseline CREDIT 1 – water efficient landscaping: Up to 4 points CREDIT 2 - innovative wastewater technologies: Up to 2 points WATER INNOVATION Grey water use leads into Credit 2, innovative waste water technologies for up to two points. To achieve these points the building design must reduce potable water use for building sewage conveyance by 50 per cent through the use of water-conserving fixtures (e.g., water closets, urinals) or non-potable water (e.g., captured rainwater, recycled greywater, and on-site or municipally treated wastewater). A second option would be to treat 50 per cent of wastewater on-site to tertiary standards. Treated water must be infiltrated or used on-site. In the realm of readily available and promoted commercial products, this area lags behind the use of HETs and HEUs to achieve water use reduction points in Credit 3. It is a rapidly growing area though and as more and more greywater systems become approved for sale in the Canadian market we will see an increase in execution on this credit area. CREDIT 3 – water use reduction: Up to 4 points All of the requirements outlined in the water efficiency section of the LEED rating system really should come down to sensible plumbing practices with an eye to preserving this valuable resource. And water preservation really should be a core value for any build, whether it is a LEED project or not. There is no more work or cost associated with installing a 6.0 litre per flush fixture and flush valve versus a 4.8 lpf version. Same goes for a 3.8 lpf urinal versus the 0.47 version. All it takes is a little bit of awareness about the products that are available and a desire to preserve water for the future.
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Plumbing for Efficiency | Mechanical Business - Sloan Valve Company

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