Canada flush with low-volume toilets: StatsCan household survey

Reported use of low-volume toilets and low-flow shower heads have skyrocketed over the last 20 years, according to a Statistics Canada survey.

Reported use of low-volume toilets and low-flow shower heads have skyrocketed over the last 20 years, according to a Statistics Canada survey.

The federal agency Wednesday announced its Households and the Environment Survey, which is based on phone interviews with 14,750 residential users nation-wide in 2009. The survey covers a range of topics, including energy efficient lights, programmable thermostats and energy-saving plumbing devices.

The survey is available at the Statistics Canada Web site.

Forty-two per cent of respondents said they used low volume toilets, up from nine per cent in 1991. During the same period, the percentage of respondents who said they used low flow shower heads increased from 28 to 63.

The study also examined energy use. Nearly nine out of ten respondents said they used either compact florescent lights, florescent tube lights, halogen or light emitting diode (LED) lights.

Three in four households surveyed said they had at least one compact florescent light, with the highest rate of use in Nova Scotia, at 84 per cent. Nearly half the respondents said they had programmable thermostats, up from 42 per cent in 2007.

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