WaterSense for New Homes

(Originally posted on waterefficiency.net)

By Elizabeth Cutright
Editor
Water Efficiency

In the “news you may have missed” category, I submit the WaterSense specifications announced by the EPA on December 10, 2009. While the rest of us were gearing up for the holidays, the EPA released its final specifications for new single-family homes—and the specifics are certainly worth reviewing as we head into a new year.
This new set of WaterSense specifications, three years in the making and incorporating input by a variety of stakeholders, was designed to dovetail with existing green building programs. According to the EPA’s press release, the WaterSense singly-family new homes specification creates “the first national, voluntary, water efficiency specification for an entire new home.” The new WaterSense homes will not only be 20% more efficient, according to the EPA, homeowners can expect save up to $200 a year in utility bills (as compared to existing residential structures) by employing these new efficiency standards.
The specifics of the plan include the following:
1) Any new homes aspiring to meet WaterSense criteria must be independently inspected and certified by a licensed EPA certification provider.
2) The WaterSense homes will include WaterSense-labeled plumbing fixtures, Energy Star appliances, smart landscaping, and dedicated hot-water delivery systems.
The EPA anticipates that this program will save over 12 billion gallons of water each year (based the average 1.27 million new homes built every year in the US). Additionally, by investing in WaterSense labeled homes, the EPA estimates that the average homebuyer can “reduce their water usage by more than 10,000 gallons per year” and “save enough energy annually to power a television for four years.”
So what do you think of this latest set of WaterSense specifications? Do you think that the savings alone are incentive enough to encourage homebuilders to strive for a WaterSense label? Do you think this type of consumer outreach is the first step towards name recognition on par with the EPA’s Energy Star program? And how could the EPA have insured that the program would have a significant impact?
For more on WaterSense, go to: www.epa.gov/watersense