Green Options

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

Seemingly relegated to airport and stadium bathrooms, touchless faucets are starting to make their way into homes, with plumbing manufacturers moving to offer more design options.  It’s an idea that may seem strange at first, but touchless faucets are actually quite practical, especially for a children’s bathroom.  They are clearly beneficial in that they limit the spread of bacteria, but they also save water.  Consider how much water is wasted while brushing teeth.  A touchless faucet ensures that water isn’t running the entire time someone is brushing.  Combined with a water-saving aerator, touchless faucets can save a substantial amount of water.  And, since the water is set at a specific temperature, having a touchless faucet removes the risk of a child scalding him or herself accidentally. 

Touchless faucets are also available for kitchens, though consumers will need to do some research to make sure they are getting something that fits their habits.  Kitchen touchless faucets clearly carry the same health and water conservation benefits but most are set at one temperature, which might be inconvenient.  Also, if the faucet does not have an override switch, the homeowner will have to hold his or her hand over the sensor while filling a pot or doing dishes, though perhaps running water while doing dishes is a habit we should reconsider.

Editor’s note: As part of our new content partnership with Low Impact Living, we’ll be bringing you tips and tricks from their massive and growing archive of products and projects that can help you save energy, water and money around the house. Today, LIL blogger Jason Pelletier takes a look at tankless hot water heaters. This post was originally published on Monday, April 28, 2008.

Tankless hot water heaters are becoming a must-have appliance in homes these days. They purport to offer many benefits - instant and endless hot water, less wasted space, and a smaller carbon footprint as well. They can even be used to power radiant underfloor heating that is a luxury found in many green homes.

But are they truly the best option? What can you expect from one, and what do you have to worry about with installation? Finally, are there other options available that offer the same benefits without some of the challenges? We’ll try to cover most of that in this piece.

In the United States, 340 billion gallons of fresh water — or 1/4 of the nation’s total supply — are pulled from rivers and reservoirs every day. (See greenerbuildings.com)

Our taps, plumbing fixtures, and irrigation systems all draw from the same sources of clean, potable water. After being used, most of the water ends up in the sewer system — all of it, at that point, contaminated. Then it is treated and returned to a body of water. This creates a cycle in which unnecessarily large volumes of water circulate through the built environment and municipal treatment facilities. However, in the last decade or so, major strides have been made in reducing the amount of water that must go through such a cycle.

Photo Credit: Univ of Alberta Creative ServicesNext to bulding heating and cooling, water heaters are the largest energy consumers in most homes. But, with a conventional water heater, much of the energy is spent on keeping the heated water from cooling off while it sits, waiting to be used. Tankless water heaters don't have these standby losses, and can be a much more efficient choice in some circumstances. […]