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Over the last few years the plumbing industry has jumped on green bandwagon. Eco friendly appliances hit the marketplace and now are the norm in our households.
From a plumbers perspective it is a green paradise. From solar water heaters, to composting toilets, point of use heaters, irrigation systems, and rain sensors to low flow showerheads.
Your clients are relying on you to not only fix a leaky faucet, but assist them in working on building or remodeling an eco friendly home. In addition, green-design principles are being rapidly accepted by local, state, and federal agencies, and by major U.S. corporations.
Owners of new developments who employ green design are using it as a strategy to separate their properties from their non-green competition. And the same holds true for plumbers.
Owners of existing properties, and to those developing new construction projects, are beginning to assess the greenness of their buildings and plan improvements to bring them into compliance with green standards.
These greener standards hold true for all aspects of your plumbing business. Whether you are a small business focusing on the individual homeowners, or a large scale contractor working on multi- million dollar projects you cannot afford to go just a little green.
Want to know how to turn your current plumbing business green? Do your research.
Is your location appropriate for solar panel hot water heaters?
Can you afford to train an employee or yourself as a Solar Thermal Systems Contractor?
If you answered yes, GO GREEN!
Find a training facility in your location, research solar panel manufacturers, and companies that specialize in solar heating water systems.
On the other hand you may live or service an area where the sun doesn’t offer much promise, maybe it’s Washington. If this is the case, go green based on your location, using natural elements with your clients will provide the most success to an environmentally friendly plumber.
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By setting up a relatively cheap and simple collection system for these three uses alone, you can reduce your client’s consumption by up to 55%. At current water prices this is a saving of about $400 annually for a typical three-person household.
Installing low flow toilets, this is probably the simplest way for you to implement these green plumbing tactics. Your clients have heard of these new fangled systems, while they not even know the green benefits; they will see a cost reduction in their water and sewer bills each month.
Be sure to work with a manufacturer that is known in your local area this promotes your fellow businessmen and allows the customer to feel comfortable doing business with both you. This will enable your organization to cross promote and add a little advertising to your business.
The benefits of all companies ‘going’ green are low in investment and high in return. This will be the wave of the future! Good post!
http://www.elocalplumbers.com/blog/green-plumbing-business-335
From our experience as expert plumbers in South Florida, I would like to give my thoughts on going green with plumbing. Although it mostly a great idea, we make more money and spend more time on unclogging the low flow toilets. In todays word, they make the toilet paper so thick and comfortable that it does not break apart when flushed. The problem I see is that the volume of water in a flush is too low to flush and break apart the heavy paper to wash it down the drain. We advise our customers to flush twice. When they do this, the first flush pushes the waste through the toilet and the second one helps wash it away. If they don’t then they call us an end up paying us to unclog their toilet. More money is spent paying the us the plumber to educate them on this than they would have spent had they had the old fashion toilets which flush great. I love the environment and Green thinking but the reality is the more water you have to flush the better your drains willl function. Next I will talk about waterless urinals.
Thanks,
Rick
drainexpert@gmail.com
Rick,
Thank you for your input. I do have to disagree however, according to another website the difference is truly in the newer versions. Gone are the double flush and triple flush machines.
http://www.terrylove.com/crtoilet.htm is a Redmond, Washington native who seriously ( not kidding) seriously reviews toilets! …His recommendation? ( no association to him or the toilet manufacturers)
My favorite toilet is the UltraMax by Toto. Toto calls this a “G-Max” toilet. The model number is MS854114S. It is a good looking one-piece that incorporates a 3″ flush valve instead of the standard 2″. The fill valve can be found in any hardware store. It meets commercial requirements, works well in a home and is quieter than the air assisted models. The long sweeping trapway is good prevention against clogging from stuck objects that can get caught in the standard shapes. This is a homeowner favorite too.
Some of the gravity toilets work very well with one flush.
Excellent are the Toto Drake and Ultramax series.
Also good are the Caroma, Toto Dalton, toilets.
Briggs has a model called the Vacuity, that uses the WhisperVac flushing system. (WhisperVac is a patented vacuum assist) The water surface area is 10″x12″.
Re: Rick–
If you are looking for a high-efficiency toilet (the industry doesn’t like the negative connotations of “low-flow”) check for the Environmental Protection Agency’s “WaterSense” label. These are all high-efficient toilets. As a plumber, I personally like to install American Standard Cadet 3 Flowise HETs or anything in the Caroma Sydney Smart series. Also, if you are looking for your plumber to be green conscious, I recommend hiring an Accredited GreenPlumber: http://www.greenplumbersusa.com/consumers/find-greenplumber
Hope that helps!
Regards,
Mark D.
Great! Thanks so much for this article and subsequent discussions- it has really helped my business attract new clients for the ‘green’ kitchen/bath
I have used the low flow toilets with exceptional results. And going green with my plumbing business has brought on an amazing amounts of new business! Thank you for this article