Category Archives: Sanitation

Nuts & Bolts by Nick: Dual Flush – The Smarter Toilet

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by Nick Romaniello

CrapperWe have come a long way from digging a hole in the ground, to get rid of our bodily wastes, and then wiping with a leaf — but anyone who has been through a disaster can tell you it doesn’t take much to send us back there. Although toilet technology has progressed over the years, most homes still contain toilets that use components developed in the 18th and 19th century. Karl Benz may find nothing in a modern automobile resembling the horseless carriages that he developed in the late 1800’s, but plumbing pioneer Thomas Crapper could easily find his innovations operating virtually unchanged in commodes over 130 years later. While fancy water saving toilets have become the norm elsewhere in the world, the West has been slow to adopt these due to water being plentiful and cheap. We don’t really stop to think about water consumption very often, but the truth is that the average American family uses about 100 gallons of water per person every day! That’s far more than the one gallon per person per day that we consider the survival standard. The biggest household consumer of water is the toilet, responsible for 25-30% of usage. This can be a heavy burden in a water shortage, or even if you have a finite supply such as a private well or small municipal source. Water conservation can help the planet and your wallet, but it can also preserve a precious resource for more important needs.

Dual flushWhile new toilets sold in the U.S. meet EPA guidelines of 1.6 gallons per flush, many homes still contain older, less efficient models that can use around six gallons per flush or more. Replacing an old toilet with a new high efficiency model is an easy project for a do-it-yourselfer, but little effort is needed to take it a step further and install a dual flush toilet. Dual flush toilets look like and install like any other toilet but allow you to choose how much water you flush with. Many have two buttons in place of a flush handle or a flush handle that can be pushed up or down to select the desired amount. When you only have urine and some toilet paper to flush, the first setting only uses a fraction of the amount in the tank. For solids, the second setting uses a full tank to thoroughly flush everything down. Gone are the days of the “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down” mentality of conserving water. I have installed many dual flush toilets and my customers have always been pleased with the planet and cash saving technology. Dual flush toilets come in as many style options as any other toilet and like anything, the fancier you want, the more you will pay. However, a dual flush toilet doesn’t have to be expensive. I have installed several Glacier Bay (Home Depot brand) and Aqua Source (Lowes brand) dual flush toilets which cost around $100. I have had no reports of problems with these less expensive models even after some have been in use for years.

df conversion kitIf you already have a high efficiency toilet that isn’t dual flush, conversion kits are available that replace the flush mechanism in your tank. These conversions are quick, easy and don’t require the removal of the toilet. While the packaging wouldn’t discourage a sale by saying so, these conversion kits do not work on toilets older than 1995 when the low flow technology became the standard. These kits cost from $30 and up.

Upgrading to any dual flush technology will quickly pay for itself with savings on your water bill and keep less of a life giving resource from going down the drain.

 

Rain, Rain Don’t Go Away

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Thoughts on Rain Barrels

In last week’s post, What Goes In Must Come Out, I discussed using water collected in rain barrels to flush the toilet. I’ve been asked for more specifics about rain barrels and how much water would really be available.

There are a lot of resources on how to build a rain barrel. A good article is Make Your Own Rain Barrel and a useful YouTube video is Urban Survival’s, How To Make A Rain Barrel. There are specifics you will have, such as what type of barrel you use and how you will deal with the overflow. But all rain barrels need to have three plumbing features:

  1. a downspout that drains the roof water into the barrel: I cut our downspout and diverted the water with a couple of downspout elbows
  2. a faucet at the bottom
  3. an overflow near the top: I used three-inch PVC pipe (and a downspout adapter) to channel the water back into the original downspout, which goes into the ground

How much rain water can you collect? To figure that out go to save-the-rain.com. Enter your address and a Google Earth picture of your neighborhood will come up. Zoom in on your house, click each corner of your house until the roof area is covered, then hit Finished. The following Results will be displayed:

  • the area of your roof is, in square meters. (To convert to square feet multiply the square meters by 10.76.)
  • the amount of rain your area receives in a year, in millimeters. (To convert to inches multiply millimeters by 0.039)
  • the amount of water you could harvest, in liters. (To convert to gallons multiply by 0.264.)
  • and how many times, using that water, you could flush the average toilet. They are estimating the average flush to be 6 liters (or 1.58 gallons). Our toilet tank holds 3 gallons, so I’m basing my math on that number.

At our house here in Western Washington (where rain is plentiful) our results were:

  • roof area: 168.6 sq m = 1814.8 sq ft
  • average annual rainfall: 1100 mm = 43.3 in
  • potential rainwater harvest: 185,450 l = 48,990 gal
  • toilet flushes: 16,330 (3 gal tank) [flushes per day for a year: 45]

For comparison, using the same roof area, Colorado Springs, CO (where I grew up) has an average rainfall of 19.6 inches (less than half of ours).

  • potential rainwater harvest: 22,174 gal
  • toilet flushes: 7,391 (3 gal tank) [flushes per day for a year: 20]

There’s a lot of water draining off your roof available for collection. These numbers are assuming you collect all the water that lands on your roof (we’re collecting from two of our four downspouts). How much you store, and how you use it, is up to you.

What Goes In, Must Come Out

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Dealing With Poop

When we discuss our five basic needs, food is first on the list. Every prepper stores food. We discuss where should we go to get it, how to prepare it, and what the next meal will be. We freely discuss all aspects of food, but very few of us comfortably mention the other end of the digestion process.

The poop. As assuredly as we know we’re going to eat regularly, we also know we’re going to poop regularly. But other than a few minutes alone in the bathroom, we hardly even think about it.

Now, envision a time when your plumbing no longer works. Maybe short-term, maybe long-term; either way when you push down the flush handle, nothing happens. You check the tank and it’s empty. What next? A very nice house after a week without working plumbing isn’t very nice anymore. Water and sanitation departments can fail. What’s your #2 plan?

If you have a septic system (that is rated for the number of people in your household) the problem of dealing with poop does not apply to you and you can stop reading now.

Our family’s plan is to use water collected in our rain barrels to refill the toilet tank so it can be flushed. We store 110 gallons of rain water, the tank uses 3 gallons each flush, that means without any rain, we can flush the toilet about 36 times. After you finish your business, you flush, then go get a 3-gallon bucket of water and refill the tank for the next person. Since we live in Western Washington, this will be fairly sustainable.

Another option, especially if you believe the emergency is short-term, is to line the inside of the (now dry) toilet bowl with a plastic bag. Do your business, remove and tie the bag. Store the bags somewhere where animals can’t get to them until the crisis is past and they can be disposed of properly.

If it’s going to last longer, you’re going to need to start digging. For a temporary measure you can dig a trench latrine. The trench latrine should be about 4 – 6 feet long,1 foot wide, and 1 foot deep. Leave the dirt that was dug out on the side of the trench so that waste can easily be covered up; keep a shovel and a roll of toilet paper nearby.

Building an outhouse is a more permanent solution. Build it close enough to the main dwelling to allow easy access, but far enough away to minimize smell. It needs to be at least 150 feet from freshwater (including a well). The pit should be 5 – 8 feet deep and framed in, to some degree, to keep the sides from collapsing. Consider building it so it can be moved if the pit fills. For detailed plans see Rogue Turtle’s post, The Outhouse, or Cottage Life’s, How to build an outhouse.

There are other ways also. At times the military, in remote locations, mixes fuel with the human waste and it’s burned. As it burns it needs to be stirred to ensure it is all consumed; use caution as it can pop and splatter (there’s a reason why this is done by the lowest ranking members of the unit). But in a SHTF scenario, most of us won’t have extra fuel to use this way.

There’s even a way human waste can be composted, it’s called humanure. I, like probably most of you, are skeptical of this approach. But in a TEOTWAWKI situation, it’d likely be the best way to both get rid of it and to maintain a usable source of fertilizer. I’m going to put that one on the back burner for now though. Here’s additional information on humanure.

No, this isn’t polite dinner conversation, but it’s a fact of life we can’t avoid. What goes in, must come out.