Pre-Rinse Spray Valves
Notification of Intent
In typical commercial food operations, dishwashing consumes nearly
two-thirds of all the water used—nearly half of which is hot
water used by the pre-rinse spray valve to remove food waste from
dishes prior to dishwashing. Up to 50 percent of the estimated 1.35
million pre-rinse spray valves currently in use have flow rates
as high as 3.0 to 4.0 gallons per minute (gpm)—more than double
the federal standard of 1.6 gpm. Considerable progress has been
made, however, to develop pre-rinse spray valves that use significantly
less water than the federal requirement, and, since pre-rinse spray
valves use hot water, this reduced water use can also lead to significant
energy savings.
EPA’s WaterSense and ENERGY STAR® programs are teaming
up to develop a specification for high-efficiency pre-rinse spray
valves. EPA wants to capitalize on the tremendous water and energy
savings opportunity, improve and promote the use of more efficient
pre-rinse spray valves, and help commercial and institutional kitchen,
restaurant, and grocery managers make informed purchasing decisions
to reduce their water and energy use, without sacrificing performance.
As a first step, EPA has issued a notification
of intent (NOI) (PDF) (6 pp, 135K, About
PDF) to develop a specification for high-efficiency pre-rinse
spray valves. This NOI outlines EPA's approach to developing the
draft specification, the efficiency and performance criteria EPA
is working to define, and the technical issues that still need to
be resolved related to these products.
EPA is interested in hearing your input! If you have comments or
suggestions on the pre-rinse spray valves specification development
process, or are interested in conducting field
research to help answer the outstanding questions, please contact
us at watersense-products@erg.com.
Research Study Scope
Specifying pre-rinse spray valve performance is critical to ensuring
long-term water and energy savings, but to date their field usage
time and corresponding user satisfaction is largely undefined.
EPA is seeking to collaborate with industry, utilities, and water-
and energy-efficiency experts to conduct field research prior to
issuing a draft specification for this product category. EPA has
developed a detailed research
study scope (PDF) (4 pp, 113K, About
PDF) to assist with this data collection and evaluation. E-mail
us at watersense-products@erg.com
if you are interested in participating in a research program to
help EPA answer its remaining questions. EPA is planning to hold
a meeting to discuss its research needs in early August 2009. More
information will be available soon, so check back for updates.
For general program information contact
WaterSense or ENERGY STAR.
We look forward to hearing from you!
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Technical Information
Are you a manufacturer or
retailer or distributor
interested in finding out more about the development of a draft
high-efficiency pre-rinse spray valves specification? Please review
the pre-rinse spray valves NOI
(PDF) (6 pp, 135K, About
PDF) and the WaterSense
data needs for more information, or e-mail
us with questions or comments.
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