On Fri, 17 Jun 2005 17:31:42 -0700, "Ulysses"
wrote:


"Scott Willing" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 09:30:54 -0700, "Ulysses"
wrote:


"Scott Willing" wrote in message
.. .
On 15 Jun 2005 11:36:20 -0700, "Too_Many_Tools"
wrote:

Thanks for the reply.


I started out at 12V primary by virtue of buying a house with an
existing PV system. Like many frontier homebrew systems, it had
started as a purely DC system to which an inverter was added later.

Having no plumbing in the house, I've acquired a number of small 12V
pumps for various specific purposes, such as our bucket shower.

Just curious, but how do you go to the bathroom? Composting toilet?

Yes and no. :-) We have a simple sawdust bucket toilet that sits
beside a commercial composting toilet, now retired. I'm going to tear
out the latter and build a nicer bucket toilet when the time is
available.

Long story, but the commercial toilet is, IMHO, a waste of money.
(Fortunately, wasn't my decision; came with the house.) A bucket
toilet is superior to it in every way.

Most so-called composting toilets, including this one, are actually
evaporating toilets and don't compost per se.

I don't see how ANY of them could actually compost anything when you are
always adding new material.

I don't see a problem with that. I add fresh material to the top of
our working pile once a week until the bin is full and we let 'er
rest. The most active thermophilic zone *is* right near the top where
the new material is added. Our working bin is toasting along at 120
degrees F right at the moment.

We learned a lot from Joe Jenkin's "Humanure Handbook" e.g. that we
don't need to do a lot of work turning the pile, and that doing so can
actually kill the thermophilic action. That's exactly what we've found
in practice. Haven't flipped a pile since.

My composting takes place in the compost heap.
That actually works.

Yep.


Outhouse?

There are two of those here, also retired.

We have shallow groundwater, and an outhouse is an potentially nasty
polluter. Actually septic systems can be just as bad - so many people
manage to pollute their wells with those too. Above-ground aerobic
composting is the way to go IMHO.

-=s
Yea. I built a composting toilet and replaced it with a bigger version (30
gallon) of the bucket toilet. I overcame the weight problem by putting a
drain at the bottom that goes into a hole (covered, of course) and I used
weeds chopped with a lawnmower or peat moss when there are no weeds instead
of sawdust.

I'm fortunate enough to have two small smallmills run by neighbors
within a few miles. We tried leaves and stuff but kept bringing in too
many bugs with 'em.

My well is about 300 feet away and down 126 feet.

Excellent.

I've given
some thought to having it go into a solar still and then only clean water
would reach the ground. Haven't figured out yet how to clean the solar
still though. Might be ugly and stinky.

One reason I like the bucket thing is 'cos the pee just goes into the
pile where it contributes nitrogen and helps to keep it at the right
moisture level.

One of our problems with the commercial unit was that no matter what
we did we would eventually end up with flies, e.g. fungus gnats,
living in there. The buckets don't sit around long enough for anything
to breed in 'em.

I thought when we build the new house I might like to try a vault, but
the fly thing really worries me. Plus, we're trying to keep to a
single-story design with no stairs which kinda precludes that anyway.
Best site we have is on a hill though, so there's still the
possibility for ground-level access to a lower-level vault. Dunno.

I'll keep the commercial toilet around just to install it
(temporarily) for getting approvals... something prior residents here
haven't had to concern themselves with.

-=s