Water Flow Rate Prescriptive Requirements

There are two ways to get credit and meet requirements for lowering water usage. You can take a performance pathway or a prescriptive pathway.

The performance pathway is ideal if you are tracking or estimating water use, trying to understand water bills or cannot comply with one of the requirements below.

All water leaks must be tested and fixed or mitigated. 

If taking this path each rate or a lower rate must be achieved on the 3 corresponding Fixtures or = value or less. Going beyond items in the certified level accrue further points. 

 

Fixture  Type  Level 
Toilet* <1.6 Gallons Per Flush (GPF)

<1.3 GPF

1.0 GPF

.8 GPF

 Certified 

Silver

Gold

Platinum
Bathroom Aerator  2.0 Gallons Per Minute (GPM)

1.75 GPM

1.00 GPM

.75 GPM

 Certified
Silver Gold

Platinum
Shower Head 2.2 Gallons Per Minute (GPM)

2.0 GPM

1.5 GPM

1.25 GPM

 Certified
Silver Gold

Platinum

*Dual Flush Toilets – When calculating the toilets take the Low Flow Rate in GPF x 2 + High Flow Rate / 3 = # GPF to input. Example, 1.28 GPF low and 1.6 high = 1.28*2 = 2.56+1.6=4.6/3 = 1.39 gpf to insert

1 Credit available for Kitchen Sinks that are rated to use 1.5 Gallons Per Minute or less

1 Credit for Clothes Washers that are Energy Star Certified 

1 Credit for Energy Star Certified Dishwasher  

At this time you must take the performance path to get points for outdoor water usage through better landscaping, irrigation, greywater and/or rainwater catchment. 

Products that can help 

Niagara Conservation Stealth Toilets ensure .8 Gallon per flush toilets and have ADA compliance. They also have 1.25gpm showerheads and .5 aerators that work and don’t sacrifice comfort! 

Verification 

Submit photos and receipts of installs of devices. The assessor will visually verify install in the field and may do leak testing or submit plumber leak test results.  Assessors may eventually test flow rates to ensure proper flow.  Pressure must be tested and 50 – 60 PSI and no higher to ensure proper flow rates as higher pressure can mean higher flows. 

Badge(s) 

Zero Water Badge is available for home scoring 10 or showing zero water usage. Groundwater can be used to get the zero water badge but must be put back in the ground at the same rate and cleanliness as it as taken out. See living building challenge water petal for more details on this.