In today’s increasing levels of water stress, our Coalition aims to develop solutions for water efficiency and water-heating reductions in homes while improving customer experience.
Through 50L Home, Electrolux Group, IKEA, Kohler Co., and Procter & Gamble joined forces with the U.S. Green Building Council California to implement a demonstration pilot in Los Angeles, California with Flume and Droople as other key partners. This unique effort to integrate solutions from different market leaders demonstrates how existing and new innovations can achieve savings in domestic water and energy consumption. We gathered data at every point of use in the home for a full year to understand water and energy consumption in 31 homes in the greater Los Angeles region. Fifteen of them were retrofitted with appliances and fixtures and provided with products designed to drive down total water and hot water use holistically while participants provided feedback about the experience. Data show significant savings in water and energy and increased satisfaction with quality-of-life among participants.
That’s 21% less than the homes in the control group and 50% less than the average person uses in Los Angeles.
That translates into an 18% reduction in energy and 16% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The average score was 4.0 out of 5 on their quality-of-life satisfaction.
18% less water per day on average was seen in the kitchen, which was achieved by reducing hand washing of dishes. This simple statistic tells a bigger story when we take a closer look.
Water used in the kitchen faucet dropped by 21%. Consumers were provided with high-efficiency dishwashers from Electrolux and Ikea and detergents designed to help save water. Consumers were also given Cascade dishwasher pods provide superior cleaning and save water by skipping the sink, and Dawn Powerwash is designed tohand wash dishes using less water.
On their own, the high-efficiency dishwashers used 26% less water per job on average, but some will wonder about the increased energy to run them. The retrofitted homes in the pilot study reduced energy overall by 18%. In the kitchen, much of that savings came from the reduction in hot water use, which dropped by 44% in kitchen sinks.
The same is true in the bathroom where high-efficiency showerheads from Ikea and Kohler lowered flow rate 15% Pilot participants (in the test group) were provided with Procter & Gamble products – Pantene 2-in-1, Old-Spice 3-in-1, and Head and Shoulders BARE. One year of the pilot produced shorter shower times for even more water and hot water savings.
Bringing even more efficiency to the bathroom was the Kohler one gallon per flush toilets which used 23% less water than the homes in the control group.
The pilot demonstrates how reducing hot water leads to energy and greenhouse gas reductions, as one should expect from a whole home approach. This was especially noteworthy in the laundry room where the new Electrolux washers used 22% less water per job on average. Tide PODS unit-dose laundry packs, which are specially formulated to clean well in cold water, were also provided to consumers to ensure peak performance. One year of pilot data showed a significant reduction of 55% in hot water use per cycle due to increased use of cold water in laundry.
Products that save water and energy in the home will have little impact if people don’t enjoy using them and don’t buy them. All the products used in the pilot achieved water and energy savings through innovative design, not by putting the burden on consumers to do more with less. No one was asked to take shorter showers, flush less often, or make any changes to their daily routine.
Pilot participants told behavior change researchers they had a better quality of life thanks to the overall impact of the products, appliances and fixtures. They rated the experience 4.0 out of 5, and some noted they now take pleasure in doing some chores. Some participants voiced their appreciation of the lower utilities bills. Data showed another factor that may contribute to their delight – less time spent doing some chores, such as handwashing dishes.
Products are constant reminders. Even if the products themselves might make a slight change, your mentality around the product makes a bigger change.
There’s an added value understanding that we’re actually saving water, even though it doesn’t feel like we’ve really changed a lot of our behaviors.
All consumable products, appliances, and fixtures used in the pilot are widely available today (link to full list). We believe water and energy savings can be driven down even further with more innovation to existing products and by incorporating new technologies. In the next phase of the pilot we will find out.
Inside the home, we will install and provide some next generation products with even higher efficiency ratings. We will also introduce water treatment and re-use with Kohler’s recirculating shower.
One area of opportunity for more savings is outdoors. In the pilot, about 62% of household water was used outside. We will experiment with polyculture and native plants, which need less watering, to try to bring that down.
The time has come for us to dramatically shift how we approach residential water use and move from one-off solutions to a holistic approach that prioritizes the consumer experience while reducing water use. We believed that was possible, and now we know that it is possible. Our next step is to look to create ongoing behavioral change in how we approach home water use through training, education, and further innovations in design.
As we continue to analyze this massive data set, we will seek to identify new products, appliances, fixtures and innovations that will drive down water and energy even lower, with the vision of eventually reaching our namesake of 50L per person per day. We invite the makers of those products to join the coalition to help us get further, faster.
We will share our findings with thought leaders in business, academia, non-profits, and governments to help further develop concepts and action plans for how homes are designed, built, and retrofitted, and how those sustainable solutions can be affordable to all. We want to hear your ideas about how the whole home approach could be significant in your area.
