Schematic Design

Check the Food Service Technology Center’s website for pre-rinse spray valves. (See Resources.)

Check the Energy Star website for clothes washers, ice machines, and food steamers. (See Resources.)

Check the Consortium for Energy Efficiency website, which has a list of products and their associated water efficiencies for clothes washers, dishwashers, ice machines, pre-rinse spray valves, and steamers. (See Resources). 

All steamers must be boilerless. Research compliant products that also meet the water efficiency standards.

Ice machines must not only meet water-efficiency requirements, but they must not be water-cooled. This is part of the credit language, athough it is easy to overlook. 

To follow the prescriptive path, choose four of these five equipment types and meet the given water use requirements.

• Clothes washers: 7.5 gallons/ft³/cycle
• Dishwashers: 1.0 gallons/rack
• Ice machines: For greater than 175 lbs. per day, 20 gallons per 100 lbs. For less than 175 lbs., 30 gallons per 100 lbs. 
• Food steamers: 2 gallons/hour
• Pre-rinse spray valves: 1.4 gallons/minute

Research process equipment that meets the water usage requirements for this credit. Find out what is on the market and what makes the most sense for your project. Most projects find compliant products relatively easy to find, but it may require some flexibility.

This credit can often be achieved at no added cost, as there are many products with recycled content that building projects already use. 

The decision to use recycled content material can help guide design decisions, such as using recycled-content steel framing instead of

Big-ticket products that often have recycled content include: steel, drywall, insulation, ceiling tiles, concrete, VCT, commercial carpet, and composite substrates.