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Japanese toilets & energy consumption

The Washington Post has an article today about Japan’s high tech toilets. The article points out how Japanese consume far less energy per capita than Americans, but claims that “electricity-guzzling” toilets waste energy:

There is a hiccup, though, in this world-beating record. It happens inside the Japanese home, where energy use is surging. And nothing embodies the surge quite like the toilet — a plumbing fixture that has been reengineered here as an ultracomfy energy hog.

Japanese toilets can warm and wash one’s bottom, whisk away odors with built-in fans and play water noises that drown out potty sounds. They play relaxation music, too. “Ave Maria” is a favorite.

High-end toilets can also sense when someone enters or leaves the bathroom, raising or lowering their lids accordingly. Many models have a “learning mode,” which allows them to memorize the lavatory schedules of household members.

These always-on electricity-guzzlers (keeping water warm for bottom-washing devours power) barely existed in Japan before 1980. Now, they are in 68 percent of homes, accounting for about 4 percent of household energy consumption. They use more power than dishwashers or clothes dryers.

The Washington Post’s readers are probably unaware that Japanese households hang most of their laundry instead of using clothes dryers, and that most Japanese dishwashers are far smaller than their American counterparts. It would have been nice if they had included such information, because some people might read the article and get the idea that Japanese toilets consume ridiculous amounts of electricity (unfairly comparing Japanese toilets to Hummers also does not help).

If you ignore those small sections of the article, you’ll find a pretty good account of how the Japanese government is making home appliance producers increase the energy efficiency of their products, including toilets. The toilets being sold by Toto Corporation today now consume almost half as much electricity than those sold a decade ago.

19 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 25, 2008 at 4:17 pm

Categories: Technology Tags: japan, toilets

Kevin

At least we know where the WaiWai journalist is now getting work.
http://www.cunning-linguist.co.uk Victoria

Disappointing cultural bias from the Washington Post too; somehow its considered more acceptable to waste vast amounts of energy on devices you would commonly find in the west, yet incomprehensible to use less energy than any of us do on a device only found in Japan. There’s such a “look at those crazy Japanese, they’re at it again…” tone to it.

I’d imagine traditional Japanese toilets use a lot less water, and certianly a lot less porcelein than wester ones, but that Washington Post journalist would undoubtedly balk at the prospect of having one installed in his flat.
http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

Learning mode for lavvies – never heard of it! As for hot water, don’t most of them produce instant hot water? We turn off the lavvie when we go out and at night, and I’ve never heard the wife complaining that the water’s cold when she goes, but not that I’ve asked her…

And 40 man for a warmed seat? Are they meaning getting the full monty including porcelain, fitting, iPod interface, etc? Just the seat is 50,000 yen or less from Yodobashi.

Obligatory link:
http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/05/30/japanese-air-conditioner-usage/

Dishwasher penetration is 24.2%. The using more power than dishwasher or driers actually means overall consumption over all households, reflecting the lower degree of penetration and usage of these.

Also, it quotes $5 or $2.50 per month electricity but doesn’t mention that electricity in Japan is considerably more expensive (three or four times?) per kWh. I’m sure Hummers add more than $5 per month to your energy bills!
http://zichi.blogspot.com zichi

I agree and you can’t just isolate one aspect and then give the impression that the Japanese are energy wasters. First the toilet, when I lived in the Japan Alps 1994-02 we didn’t even have a flushing toilet which is still the case for many countryside places.
I don’t know anyone who uses a dish dryer or a dryer for clothes. Japanese washing machines are much smaller than American ones.
The Japanese shared bath uses less water, power and gas.
The Japanese room is usually lit with one low energy ceiling light.
Japanese drive smaller cars and drive them less. American oil consumption is 22 million barrels of oil every day, which is one quarter of world daily production, 45% is used by cars. This is certainly one of the aspects of the current oil crisis.
Less people use ac. we don’t use it but we do use fans to keep dry.
More waste is recycled in Japan than the States.
Japanese eat and waste a lot less food.

Level3

Japanese shared bath is NOT more efficient, because everyone has to wash themselves before they get in the bath, and these days that means many people take a shower THEN take a bath. Very wasteful, especially for people living alone or couples.
Add in that a full bath uses much more water than a shower for one person.

The only way Japanese people use less hot water in the bath is if there’s at least 4 people AND they wash themselves with the plastic bucket, taking water from the bath to do it.

And stop criticizing America for having to use oil for cars and jets. Trains are impractical..impossible, in America. America is BIG. Going across country by train in the USA takes at least 4 DAYS! Most of the USA is less populated than Japanese “inaka”. Can you survive, go to work, go shopping in Japan’s inaka without a car?

But yes, Japanese cars are more efficient. They also fold up like accordions when there’s an accident and everyone in the car dies.

I’m pretty sure the “fact” that Japan recycles more than the US is not true. And Japanese people eat and waste a lot less food? Hahahaha. Maybe it’s because it takes so long to unwrap everything from all the packaging.

Japan is NOT #1 in environmental policy and recycling. Start researching instead of just making shit up.

http://sdf one

I was thinking the same thing.

you forgot one thing tho…… The “smaller” washing machines. Before I moved to japan my family would wash about three loads of laundry but here in japan we have to do about seven or eight loads a week. I want you people who claim “japan is more energy efficient” to explain to me how running the small machine eight times uses less energy and water than running the large ones three times. Good luck.

http://zichi.blogspot.com zichi

In my last comment I forgot to mention the Washington Post missed out Dr NakaMats gold toilet and gold bathroom?
phauna

They said Japan is energy efficient, what more do you want? No one needs a heated toilet seat. I don’t see many half flush Japanese toilets either.

http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

Many home loos are half flush – my remote control for the flush has big and small buttons, and most manual flushes on home toilets go back for small, forward for big, or is it vice versa?

kabocha5000

Just a moment.. a remote control for the flush? Why? You’re already standing at the toilet when you need to flush anyway. Or is it for people who forget to flush and then suddenly remember when they’re in another room?

Separate from that, not only are most Japanese dishwashers far smaller than their American counterparts, very very few households around here have one. Like us. I am CONSTANTLY doing the dishes.

TofuUnion

The shower toilet was initially invented in the USA for medical use. Then Toto has developed it for commercial use.

As for energy consumption of the electricity toilets, it’s just about 4 percent of household and not likely worth to mention about the waste of energy. I guess Blaine Harden has never used high tech toilets and doesn’t understand how comfortable it is.

Cumin

Err, it IS written in the article that these toiletsare of American origin…
Level3

4% is a lot!

It ends up being half a monthly electric bill once per year. Would you be able to live without a heated toilet seat to be able to cut your electric bill in half one month each year?

And the worst part is, many places leave these damn heated seats ON in the middle of summer! And probably leave them on all night after the shops close.

I’m on a personal campaign, and unplug any heated toilet seat in a public toilet I come across. [Besides, it means less of my ass sweat on a toilet YOU might use next, how can you object to that?]

Besides, I just hate the feeling of the heated seat. “Ew, someone just got off” is what goes through the unaccustomed-to-wasteful-heated-toilet-seat mind.

Want to keep the seat feeling nice at home? just buy a friggin cushion/pad toilet seat cover.

If Japan were serious about saving electricity, banning these toilets would be a good step. Never happen, though.

fh

Average power consumption in Japan per-capita is 8000kWh annually. At 4% of total, the toilet seat comes in as a 35W (per hour) appliance — I’m sure you can think of many electronics that consume far more than 35Wh. By comparison, Americans consume on average 13,000kWh a year, so the point is that they aren’t exactly in a position to criticize Japan for using these toilet seats.

Looking at it by cost, $2.50/mo is $30 annually, or the cost of dining out, twice (in a year).

http://theworldofm.wordpress.com m

Crazy! There are tonnes of things that use more energy in vain. At least this keeps your bum, your bits, others’ bums, others’ bits and the toilet clean! Which then leads to less diseases etc etc which then leads to lower consumption of energy in the future. Then again, you could also spend a crapload (hehe) of money on a great toilet just for the shits (again) and giggles like this one here:
http://theworldofm.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/a-very-costly-doo-doo/

Level3

Uh, last time I checked, microbes LIKE body temperature warmth. A non-heated seat is too “cold” for many things to live very long.

It’s just a senseless waste of electricity, and a silly manufactured demand for a product nobody needs, which is something Japan is especially good at doing.

kabocha5000

These microbes you speak of are probably pretty hardy little creatures so I doubt that the “coldness”, actually probably just room temperature, would do much in the way of killing them, maybe slow their reproduction. But in this case, a warmed seat might be a plus since it promotes evaporation; the seat dries faster and removes the available water for any little microbes to use. Of course, you could just clean your toilet seat from time to time…

Tomas

heated seats? probably not necessary (but my wife, who is Japanese tells me that many old folks, going to the toilet in unheated rooms, suffer heart attacks from the shock of a cold toilet seat.

the anal “douche” though, is a blessing. Jack Kerouac in “Big Sur” pinpointed a possible source of (North)American neuroses: that so many people thinking they were so clean, were going around with dirty assholes because they’d only wiped them with paper. very inefficient. subconsciously they knew they knew they were “soiled.”

on a recent trip to Japan I was gratified to take advantage of an intelligent means of personal hygiene. no need then to hang my ass over the edge of the bath tub to wash with water and bring the comforting sensation of having a clean asshole.
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Japanese toilets & energy consumption

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