Full Description

The City of Austin has offered a toilet rebate program to multifamily housing since 1992 and a free toilet program since 1997. This paper reports on a study done in early 2001 to determine the effectiveness of the City of Austin's toilet retrofit programs by using the metered water use of 45 multifamily housing complexes before and after retrofit. Complexes included in the study were built prior to the 1991 efficient plumbing standards. Winter water use was averaged to calculate the savings. Approximately 5,893 residents in 2,902 apartment units use the 3,463 toilets that were retrofitted. The results show that the average per capita water use decreased from 74.5 gallons of water used per day to 56.6 gallons used per day. Overall reduction in water use averaged 25% or 17.9 gallons per person per day in the 45 housing complexes. The results found in this study correspond with the results found in the American Water Works Association's Residential End Use Study. Approximately 25,000 toilets have been replaced in multifamily units built before 1991, representing 35% of all pre-1991 units in Austin. Includes tables, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/01/2002 Number of Pages: 9File Size: 1 file , 200 KB