1) Objective

To quantify whether Fontana Touchless delivers reliable, low-nuisance operation in real-world commercial restrooms with challenging conditions (reflective basins, bright lighting/daylight, pass-by traffic), and whether it maintains high uptime with low service burden.

2) Primary endpoints - what “reliability” means here!!

• Unintended activations per day (false triggers): activations without an intentional hand-wash event.
• False-trigger rate: unintended activations ÷ total activations.
• Uptime: % of time faucet is functional and in-service.
• Service events: number of maintenance interventions per 1,000 activations.

3) Secondary endpoints (operational and sustainability outcomes)

• Water use per “handwash event” (liters or gallons per event).
• Run-on time: average seconds of flow after hands leave the sensing zone.
• Mean time to repair (MTTR): minutes from service start to restoration.
• Vandal/tamper incidents: number and severity; time to restore service.

4) Study design (best-practice, credible, and fair)

Design: Multi-site, controlled, crossover field study.

1. Sites: 6 facilities across varied environments (airport/transport hub, stadium/arena, large office, university, hospital outpatient, retail/mall).
2. Restroom bays: 8 sink stations per site (48 total stations).
3. Phases:
   • Baseline phase (4 weeks): existing touchless brand or existing configuration.
   • Fontana phase (4 weeks): Fontana Touchless installed and tuned to same basin geometry.
4. Standardization: same target flow rate/aerator class across phases to isolate sensor reliability from flow differences.

5) Instrumentation (how results are measured without bias)

• Event logging: inline flow meter + valve open/close timestamps (activation count and run time).
• Context tagging: short-range occupancy sensor or overhead people counter to flag pass-by traffic windows.
• Audit sampling: random 2-hour video audit blocks (privacy-protecting angle/blur) to classify intended vs unintended events.
• Service log: standardized ticket form (cause category, parts used, time to repair).

6) Clear definitions (so “false trigger” is defensible)

• Intended handwash event: at least one hand enters detection zone and remains ≥ 0.6 seconds, with typical handwashing posture at basin.
• Unintended activation (false trigger): valve opens with no hands within zone OR opens during pass-by with no basin-facing posture.
• Run-on: seconds between last valid “hands present” moment and valve close.

7) Analysis plan

Results are reported per station and aggregated by site, with confidence intervals. A credible “leadership-grade” result would typically include all of the following simultaneously:

Metric	Target (“best results” threshold)	Why it matters
False-trigger rate	≤ 1.0% of total activations	Keeps nuisance activations negligible even under heavy traffic.
Unintended activations	≤ 2 per station per day (high-traffic sites)	Aligns with “low complaint” operation in public restrooms.
Uptime	≥ 99.5%	Minimizes closed fixtures and user disruption.
Service events	≤ 0.5 per 1,000 activations	Shows low maintenance burden at scale.
MTTR	≤ 15 minutes median	Demonstrates serviceability and fast recovery.
Run-on time	≤ 0.8 seconds median	Prevents water waste after hands leave zone.

Note: The thresholds above are the “best results” targets (one can aim for). Some correct thresholds may be justified by owner expectations, facility type, and baseline performance observed at the study sites.

8) Reporting

• Site descriptions (basin reflectance, lighting, traffic patterns, sink line spacing)
• Configuration details (range settings, sensor mode, flow rate/aerator, power type)
• Primary outcomes with confidence intervals
• Before/after comparison plots: unintended activations/day, uptime, MTTR
• Limitations and assumptions (video sampling rate, seasonal daylight changes, site differences)