The result?
“We haven’t seen any issues with flushing or odors, which is the big one. There’s been no noticeable difference,” Adrian says. “From that standpoint, I would say the technology is absolutely working.”
Although HDR has yet to pull the urinals off the wall to determine if buildup is occurring, Adrian says the hybrid units have been a “win” from an operational perspective, as well as an aesthetic one.
“I think the technology is working from just a visual standpoint because people didn’t realize what they were so they thought they could just flush stuff down it like the old ones,” he says.
That’s presented some maintenance headaches, Adrian admits, some people have placed items in the urinals that can damage the cartridge, which costs about $40 each to replace. However, the recurrence of such incidents has declined as people are educated about the product, which Adrian says is crucial to implementing any new fixtures.
“I think when you want to consider going low flow or waterless, it’s about occupant and user education—that’s from somebody who’s using it. You’ve got to educate them,” he says. “If you don’t educate them on what’s going in, and you just change it on day one and say, ‘Use it,’ you’re probably going to get a lot of pushback and things aren’t going to go very well.”
At the end of the day, the question isn’t whether your facility upgrades to completely waterless, low flow or some hybrid technology in between. What matters is that in your water-conservation efforts, you evaluate your facility’s usage, plumbing system, local regulations, and available fixtures—and educate users—to ensure efficiencies are gained effectively and your money isn’t going down the drain.
Addressing Low-Flow Plumbing Problems
To address potential problems with plumbing blockages in concert with using lowflow or waterless fixtures, there are a number of considerations facility managers need to make before settling on a solution. According to the Chicago-based Alliance for Water Efficiency, a few potential remediation steps for solid-waste transport problems in building drainlines with very reduced flows (though not yet tested nor recommended) include:
- Develop a better understanding of how sanitary drainline system components and variables, such as pipe slope, flow volume, and flow rate from plumbing fixtures and appliances affect solid waste transport down drainlines and into sewers.
- In existing buildings, determine the minimum wastewater flow requirements for solid waste transport in the building’s drainline prior to the installation of new high-efficiency appliances, fixtures and other water-using equipment. For example, commercial buildings with isolated high-efficiency toilets with long, isolated and horizontal drainline runs to the sewer may be potential trouble spots that will require adjustments to the plumbing system.
Rectify problematic building drainline flows by targeted adjustments to flows and composition, possibly including any or all of the following:
- Installation of one or more highervolume fixtures at the beginning of an isolated drainline (farthest from the sewer) to provide additional flows to help move solid waste down the drainline.
- Installation of a timer on the automatic flush valve for one or more high-efficiency toilets and/or urinals installed at the farthest end of the isolated horizontal run. These timed, extra flushes will provide periodic surges of water to facilitate solids transport down the drainline and to the sewer.
- Changing the type of toilet paper provided in restrooms. Toilet paper products vary considerably in their composition and rate of disintegration in wastewater, which in some cases affects solid-waste transport.
For new buildings, project carefully water and wastewater flow requirements when water-efficient equipment, appliances and fixtures will be installed. Be sure to use updated flow specifications — not necessarily standard design criteria that may be outdated — when specifying pipe sizes, as approved by the code or other authority having jurisdiction.
Develop new design criteria and sizing requirements for water and sanitary drainline pipes in buildings with multiple sources of reduced flows.