Regulatory
Commercial bathrooms prescribe certain conditions by law. Lavatory faucets must work without hand contact in the following applications:
Medical areas
Touch free faucets are regulated in work areas with increased infection instances to prevent accidents (health service VBG 103)
- hospitals
- hand wash areas
- laboratories
- medical practices
- rescue & ambulance
- operations rooms
Meat-processing systems
According to the meat hygiene regulation FIHV EEC guideline for butcher certifications (federal legal gazettes of 02.04.79), wash areas must operate hands-free. This applies to all slaughterhouses, dismantling and processing plants, as well as meat departments with fresh meat, butcher‘s shops, and the meat-processing industry.
Other regulations
– notes of the ARGEVET of 22.01.81
– proclamation of the request for the permission of operations federal (legal gazette 94a)
Milk-processing systems
Where milk is treated, automatic washing mechanisms must be available for hand washing. This applies to dairies, cheese factories, milk collection places, and processing plants of milk products.
Regulation:
– bring regulation over hygiene and quality requirements from milk (milk supply)
– EEC guideline to 85/397/EWG of the advice of 05.08.85 (milk hygiene guideline)
Commercial kitchens
In order to prevent disease, plant-based food items are to be washed electronically at all large-scale catering establishments and commercial kitchen establishments. Regulation: federal health page, special edition of 09.12.77
Profitability
Hotel rooms
How much does the hotel industry stand to gain from automatic touchless faucets? Let’s break it down!
Calculations based on a 20-bathroom hotel with an average room occupancy of 170 days and with conventional faucet use of 15 minutes per day (and washing, teeth cleaning, shaving, etc.)
There are also preconditions that factor in.
COST PRECONDITIONS
Fresh water and wastewater costs 2,50 EUR/m³
Energy costs 1,00 EUR/m³
Investment and installation sensor faucet 405,00 EUR/pce.
CALCULATION
Traditional faucets
20 bathrooms * 15 minutes water use every day for 170 days.
300 minutes a day multiplied by 170 days
That’s 51 000 minutes or 850 hours or 35 days of water.
Touchless faucets
20 bathrooms * X minutes of water every day for 170 days.
That’s XXXX minutes of water
Traditional water use (35 days of water) less automatic faucet use (X days of water) results in a savings of XX days of water.
At 1,00 EUR/m3 energy cost + water costs of 2,50 EUR/m3, XX days of water works out to a savings of $XX every day.
Public hotel sector
The basis for the calculation below is a washroom facility in a restaurant.
Average opening hours are from 11am-2pm and 6pm to midnight.
The restaurant has 80 seats.
Estimating 17 uses per faucet per hour.
COST PRECONDITIONS
Fresh water and waste water costs 6.00 CAD/m³
Energy costs 2,00 CAD/m³
Investment and installation sensor faucet 900,00 CAD/pce.
CALCULATION
Uses per hour: 17
Uses per day (10 hours) 170
Uses per month (25 days) 4.250
Uses per year 51.000