Total Cost of Ownership of Sensor Faucets in Commercial and Healthcare Construction

Abstract

Owners who are pursing the construction of new commercial and healthcare buildings are very interested in the sustainability, energy efficiency, life cycle costs and cleanliness of their proposed projects. Owners are requiring designers and construction companies to develop innovative strategies to lower their utility use and total cost in their projects. One area of opportunity to meet this owner need is the decision to use either battery-powered or hardwired restroom faucets. Several construction projects of various types and locations were analyzed to determine the total cost of ownership of both types of faucets over a 12-year and 25-year timeframe. The results of the unit cost calculation showed that the battery-powered faucets had a lower cost of ownership at 12 years, while hardwired fixtures installed in intervals of six had the lower cost of ownership over 25 years. Although, when researching actual construction projects, where installation of multiple faucets in a row isn't realistic, battery-powered faucets had the lower cost of ownership over the hardwired options in both the 12-year and 25-year timeframes in all building types.