The City of Durham North Carolina is offering residents $100 rebate incentive if they replace toilets with efficient ones.
Info below from the city website www.durhamnc.gov
Durham’s Toilet Rebate Program Now Available
Residents Now Eligible for $100 Rebate to Replace Water-Wasting Toilets with High-Efficiency Models
Durham, N.C. – Durham residents interested in saving water – and money – now have another opportunity thanks to the City of Durham’s New Toilet Rebate Program.
The program, sponsored by the City’s Department of Water Management, offers rebates valued at $100 when qualified water customers replace their existing toilets with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) WaterSense-labeled, high-efficiency toilet models.
According to Vicki Westbrook, deputy director of the City’s Department of Water Management, if Durham residents replace just 3,000 toilets, the community can save nearly 21 million gallons of water per year, which makes choosing a WaterSense toilet an option worth considering. “Toilet flushing makes up about 30-to-40 percent of all water used in homes. Older, inefficient toilets can use between 3.5 and 7 gallons per flush and are responsible for most of the water wasted in our homes. Recent advancements have allowed toilets to use 20 percent less water than the current federal standard of 1.6 gallons per flush, while still providing equal or superior performance,” Westbrook said. “The WaterSense label certifies that the toilets meet rigorous testing for both performance and efficiency. Only high-efficiency toilets that complete a third-party certification process can earn the WaterSense label, which is why we’re requiring this as part of our rebate program.”
According to Westbrook, to be eligible for the City’s rebate, any toilet purchased must be a high-efficiency toilet, which uses an average of 1.28 gallons per flush, and must be on the EPA’s WaterSense list. At this time, only single-family residential customers may apply for the rebate. Any toilet which meets the criteria and is purchased after January 1, 2008, will be eligible for the rebate, with a limit of one per household. Rebates will be applied as credits to customers’ water bills. To apply for the rebate, residential customers will need to submit all of the following information:
• the original dated sales receipt for the toilet;
• a copy of the most recent water bill; and
• a completed Rebate Application Form.
Rebates will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis, with one toilet rebate allowed per single family residential customer. Approximately 3,000 rebates will be available during the first phase of the program. The rebate form, a link to approved toilets, and more details are available at www.DurhamSavesWater.org or by calling the Rebate Center at 866-522-3806.










Toilets account for approx. 30% of water used indoors. By installing a Dual Flush toilet you can save between 40% and 70% of drinking water being flushed down the toilet, depending how old the toilet is you are going to replace.
If you are serious about saving water, want a toilet that really works and is affordable, I would highly recommend a Caroma Dual Flush toilet. Caroma toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. On an average of 5 uses a day (4 liquid/ 1 solid) a Caroma Dual Flush toilet uses an average of 0.96 gallons per flush. The new Sydney Smart uses only 1.28 and 0.8 gpf, that is an average of 0.89 gallons per flush. This is the lowest water consumption of any toilet available in the US. Caroma, an Australian company set the standard by giving the world its first successful two button dual flush system in the nineteen eighties and has since perfected the technology. Also, with a full 3.5″ trapway, these toilets virtually never clog. All of Caroma’s toilets are on the list of WaterSense labeled HET’s http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/find_het.htm and also qualify for several toilet rebate programs available in the US. Please visit my blog http://pottygirl.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/what-you-should-know-about-toilets/ to learn more or go to http://www.caromausa.com to learn where you can find Caroma toilets locally. Visit http://www.ecotransitions.com/howto.asp to see how we flush potatoes with 0.8 gallons of water, meant for liquids only. Best regards, Andrea Paulinelli, owner ecoTransitions Inc.