City of Calgary Toilet Reward Program

My feet are getting smaller or rather my global footprint is. I have written about this before. A couple of weeks ago, on the City of Calgary’s Twitter account, they mentioned their toilet rebate/reward program. Our (at least) 20 year old toilets, which were (at the very least) 13 litre flush, but more likely 20L, had seen better days and really just needed to be replaced. I had done a few things to fix them, but it was simply time. Plus, there’s rewards to be gotten! This was all part of our bathroom renovation day.

The City of Calgary will give you $50 per toilet that you replace with a lowflow or lowflush 6 litre (6 Lpf) toilet (maximum of three toilets).

Toilet Reward Requirements

1. Be metred
2. Take out your old hogs (toilets)
3. Buy and install the eligible toilets
4. Make your toilet unusable (that’s the fun part)
5. Dispose of old toilet
6. Send in reward application form

Making a toilet unusable?

Roughly translated from beareaucratic nonsense—smash the hell out of it. Brendan (though not actually helpful) and I went to the dump. Last time I went to a dump, you actually drove up and into the dump. But this was a much cleaner experience. We just drove up to some bins that later, when full, would be driven to the dump. What this really means is that we got to drop toilets from about 10 feet up.

Dropping a toilet and watching it smash from ten feet was really, really enjoyable. I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass. In other words, it was epic.

Though, on second thought, probably not Gandalf epic.

6 Lpf Toilets

We bought the toilets from Rona. They were $139 (on sale) each (for the full toilet). They were Rona brand toilets, but in truth they are actually made by Foremost. Which was a bit of a headache, because on the City of Calgary website’s list of eligible there is a whole section devoted to Home Depot, but not Rona. So I had to actually go back to Rona and ask who made the toilet and then they showed me (after waiting for 45 minutes someone to come back from their 15 coffee break) it was made by Foremost. In the Foremost section there is the listing for Rona’s toilet.

Installing a toilet

Installing a toilet is actually really easy (when you have my Dad’s help and probably even if you don’t). I’d say it’s best to have two people. I thought this would be a ton of work, but really it took about a half hour. Nothing to it. Basically just put the wax seal on the bottom, line the bolts up on the bottom, pressed down, screw on and put the rest together. Turn on the water and your done.

Probably the biggest tip is to not to tighten too much. If it’s leaking from the tank, just slowly tighten it more until the leak stops. Slow and easy wins the race.

Money, money and rewards

I learned later that you don’t actually get a cheque. The money is taken off your Enmax bill. Which is fine. But money is way cooler. I filled out the application and am mailing it today. Hopefully we’ll get that money back soon. The rebates will almost pay for one of the toilets and over the next year or two the water savings should completely pay for them. Plus, the new toilets are insulated so they won’t sweat and they fill faster and make a lot less noise. All-in-all, this is a real win—for us, our utility bill and the environment.

What kind of projects do you have on the go?