HILLSBORO, ORE.—Caroma, a leader in dual flush toilets and stylish bathroom sinks, was chosen by Goodman Realty Group to furnish high efficiency toilets (HETs) for the historic Hotel Andaluz in Albuquerque, N.M. The hotel, with 107 guestrooms, opened on October 1, 2009, after a $30 million renovation. One goal for the Andaluz is LEED Gold certification, potentially the first for a hotel listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Caroma was chosen by Goodman Realty Group to help maximize water savings in the guestrooms and because of toilet design. The hotel has been retrofitted with Sydney Smart 270 and Caravelle 270 toilets. The Sydney Smart is a dual flush toilet using 1.28 gallons per flush for solid waste and 0.8 gallons for liquid and paper waste, averaging only 0.90 gallons based on a 1:4 full/half flush ratio. The Caravelle HETs have a 1.6 gallon full flush and a 0.8 gallon half flush, averaging just 0.96 gallons per flush.
“One of the main reasons Caroma toilets were chosen was because of the adjustable rough-in,” says Darin Sand, LEED AP for Goodman Realty Group. “This hotel was originally opened in 1939, and during that time, rough-ins were usually 10 inches. However, when we were remodeling the bathrooms, we discovered that the rough-ins were 10 inches, 11 inches, 12 inches, or somewhere in-between. With the offset connector supplied with the Caroma toilets we chose, we could easily handle any of these variations.”
Because the Hotel Andaluz has also applied for LEED Gold certification, water savings was critical.
“When the hotel was bought by Goodman Realty Group in 2005, there were 3 gallon per flush toilets installed,” Sand says. “We expect to save at least 45 percent of indoor water usage by using Caroma toilets. At a minimum, we’d expect more than 100,000 gallons of water saved each year assuming just 50 percent occupancy and four flushes per room per day. Additionally, using these toilets is a key component in helping us receive three points towards LEED certification.”
Hotel Andaluz also has several other environmentally-friendly features. A few of these include an integrated building energy management system, solar heated hot water system, rainwater capture tanks, interior finishes incorporating natural, recycled, and low volatile organic compound (VOC) products, green cleaning supplies, recycled paper, and many others.
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