The problem isn't that there isn't enough enough clean water to
go around. Water conservation advocates that cite statistics like
(and I'm guessing on the numbers here) .1% of the worlds water
is drinkable are being intellectually dishonest and not actually
doing any GOOD. Because that still means there are MILLIONS
of gallons of drinkable water PER PERSON. In most cities in most
developed countries that water runs through a treatment plant
and is sometimes recycled right into drinking water again. The
point is, the problem is clean water AT A SPECIFIC SITE.
Conserving water in Portland Oregon doesn't do the people in
Africa, spewing dysentery into their water on a daily basis, any
good. And in many cases, conserving water is LESS energy
efficient. So... I really just don't get it. I think the solution is
adoption of simple, thrifty, sustainable practices being used independently and built into homes, that can then be duplicated
and run reliably in third world countries. We have the means and
materials to do things cost effectively, but they're not complicated
enough. "green washers" want complicated solutions, like driving
prius' and wind energy, that really are not very good for the
environment.
When it comes to green building, an oft-overlooked aspect is a water-wasting bathroom toilet.
But there’s more to toilet tech than meets the eye.
Cedar Knolls, N.J.-based Niagara Conservation’s Stealth toilet uses a passive “vacuum-assist” setup to flush using just 0.8 gallons — far less than the 1.28 gallons offered by Water Sense-certified models on store shelves around the country.
Environmental Building News’ Alex Wilson explains how it works:
After the toilet is flushed, water fills a special inner chamber that’s hidden inside the conventional-looking toilet tank. (In this respect, it is like a pressure-assist toilet–with its tank-within-a-tank that is filled from the bottom.) As this inner chamber fills, though, air at the top is pushed down through a special transfer tube into the trapway, essentially creating a large air bubble between water in the toilet bowl and water in the sanitary trap near the base of the toilet. This air bubble, which fills about 12 inches of the trapway, exerts a force on the water in the trapway, raising the water level in the toilet bowl to create a larger water spot (water surface area) than would be expected from a toilet using just 0.8 gallons per flush.
When the toilet is flushed, water exiting the inner chamber creates a vacuum–depressurizing the trapway. This depressurization creates a suction force that pulls water from the toilet bowl into the trapway. During the flush, the trapway is entirely filled with water, which cleans the fully glazed trapway.
Pressure-assist toilets are also good at water conservation, but they produce a very loud “whoosh” when you flush them.
The bottom line: with the Stealth, lots of waste can be removed using very little water.
For now, Niagara recommends the toilet only be installed in residential applications, since it conveys waste less far than toilets with a higher flush volume.
The Stealth is available starting at $315.
