- Water Conservation - 1 year payback on going GREEN
- Toilet Overflow Prevention
- Tax Credits
Water Conservation - 1 year payback on going GREEN - The One Year Pay-Back Plan
More and more, water conservation leads the discussion when GREEN is the topic. Regardless of your industry, you provide a large number of toilets per person for individual use. And regardless of whether they are from the EPA, the American Water Works Association, the insurance industry or the water boards for hundreds of metropolitan areas, all studies relating to water conservation and indoor appliances rate the toilet as the major source of water waste!
According to the EPA studies, 1 out of 5 toilets leak. Leaks commonly begin within the first 6 months of new installation of flappers and/or fill valves. Simply stated, the chemicals in the water and the chemicals used to clean the toilet cause deterioration of the rubbers and plastics and create leak points. A “silent leak” as defined by the EPA can leak from 50 to 500 gallons per day for a single toilet A single stuck flapper can waste up to 5000 gallons per day. Most facilities managers are rated on cost reductions. Knowing the leak can begin quickly in even the best toilet valves, how many dollars could you save EVERY MONTH if you just knew about the leak or stopped the water from running due to a stuck fill valve or flapper?
LEED credits may be available to those pursuing accreditation. Even the lowest flow toilet wastes more water than it flushes when it leaks. It would take 25 flushes per hour with a super low flow toilet ( 1.2 gallon per flush) to equal one small flapper leak.
Toilet Overflow Prevention
- Casualty
- Vandalism
- Clean-Up
- Mold Prevention
Casualty
The H2Orb was designed first for use in senior housing and assisted living facilties. At a 450 room facility in Pasadena, Ca toilet overflow were a constant issue. Due to the nature of the facility, dementia in its guests was not uncommon the a major source of related issues to the facilities manager was toilet over flows. In that environment, an overflow was a 911 call and more than once, the water on the floor created a slip and fall injury. A slip and fall of a senior can lead to broken bones, complications, permanent hospitalization and even death.
While the above is not so common in other facilities such as university housing, lodging and office buildings, the potential is there and in our increasing litigious society, the cost of defending against a single lawsuit for a back injury due to a toilet overflow would pay for the installation of an overflow device for every toilet, hundreds of times over.
Vandalism
At a university in Florida, students learned how to get new carpet for their dorm rooms.
Take a red solo cup, the kind you get at all the keg parties, put a paper towel in it, push it into the toilet. Now, push the handle down several times really fast and get the chain stuck so the flapper doesn’t close. Next, go away for the weekend. You get new carpet, maybe new furniture, and your pal downstairs does too because it ran through the walls and down the second floor and finally to the first floor where after it soaked all the walls and where the acoustical ceiling finally fell in the common room.
So, even if you own your own reservoir, like one university in California, the overflow is still your biggest issue.
Clean-Up
Clean-Up is another issue directly related to overflow. Not only are there potential health issues and of course the smell, but costs related to the time and costs dedicated to clean up after a major overflow can be large. Drying fans, carpet replacement, labor hours, etc., are all directly related to overflow. Guest inconvenience can also be a direst loss to revenue. And that is just the tip of the iceburg.
A constant running overflow can lead to major damage to carpets, floors, walls and substructures; sometimes for several floors below the point of overflow. The staggering statistics of billions of dollars of insurance claims (American Insurance Institute) due to malfunctioned toilets doesn’t take into consideration the enormous cost the facilities must endure due to high deductibles. The average toilet overflow costs the insurance company an unbelievable $36,000 per overflow. Yes, the zeros and commas are in the right spot!
Mold Prevention
The housekeeping staff cleans up. They usually don't care how the mess was started, they clean it up and move on. The next day, the next day, and on and on.
Mold can begin to grow within 24 hours. The walls become damp and inside the mold begins to grow. No one notices until the damp smell begins to permeate the surrounding area. Tear out the walls and check the damage. Mold remediation is not cheap and depending on the length of time reconstruction can take, the potential for lost revenues is real.