Variable Flow Showerheads

April Ambrose

Business Development Manager

Entegrity

LEEDuser Basic Member

154 thumbs up

April 23, 2010

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Tristan Roberts

Representative

Vermont House of Representatives

LEEDuser Expert

7780 thumbs up

Thu, 04/29/2010 - 15:58

I could see USGBC going either way on this. As Bill Swanson said to me in an email, it could be similar to lighting where we are forced to count the watts of the maximum rating of the socket.On the other hand, since it defaults to 1.5 gpm you could justify using that, or using some scheduled combination in which you "guesstimate" how it will be used.Let us know what approach you take and how it pans out—and I hope the credit isn't hinging on this.

April Ambrose

Business Development Manager

Entegrity

LEEDuser Basic Member

154 thumbs up

Thu, 04/29/2010 - 19:44

Thanks, Tristan. I was preemptive in asking this question as the owner is currently testing shower heads from a few vendors. We have tested this one (owner installed it at home) and highly recommended it to the owner. However, they have not chosen one yet. If the owner uses this one, I will let you know how it goes! If we did submit it, I think we would do so at the 1.5gpm rate. Our reasoning is this: The owner has flipped the switch to the 2.0gpm and could not tell a difference. Plus, his wife didn't even know that was an option!

Neil Rosen

Director of Sustainability

Northwell Health

LEEDuser Basic Member

48 thumbs up

Wed, 05/05/2010 - 11:38

If you go with that showerhead, you should be putting 2gpm in the form. You have to go with the worst case.

Landon Chapman

Graduate Architect, LEED AP

MSKTD & Associates, Inc.

LEEDuser Basic Member

14 thumbs up

Mon, 12/19/2011 - 14:01

April, if you don't mind me asking, how did this turn out for you? I'm in the exact same situation currently.

April Ambrose

Business Development Manager

Entegrity

LEEDuser Basic Member

154 thumbs up

Mon, 12/19/2011 - 21:44

Unfortunately, we ended up going with a straight 1.5gpm shower. This was going in a college dorm and the owner wanted the simplest fixtures with lowest maintenance and moving parts to potentially break. So, they decided to pay a bit more to not have a variable flow. So, unfortunately, we still don't know the answer to this question.