compost toilets

[catalyst]

its just brick built, and rendered. the water heating is simply black plastic pipe coiled on the roof, cold water going in one end, and hot (heated by the sun, probably not enough sun in scotland unless you were to cover the pipe with a sheet of glass?) coming out the other. think we have 30 metres of pipe about 2 inch diameter... if this doesnt give us enough hot water for showers we'll add another 30 metres in the future.

[caithnesscrofter]

Thanks for the info! I hope you'll post photos of the roof water heating system being installed. Forgot to ask. How is the water being pumped up through the coil on the roof? And what type of roofing will you use?

We are planning on doing many an experiment with different compost toilets. I've planted the willow this year for a "treebog" which I will build next spring but, for now we have just the bucket system for which we've just built our own version of the "humanure hacienda". I've just installed the bath drain in the roof and am waiting for my cob drainage pieces (to guide the water to the drain) to dry then we will lay the waterproof membrane down and then the flashing then the turf. Then it will be done. We've started using it already though.



Next, we will be building a similiar thing as yourself except a bath/sauna instead of a shower. (You've got my cogs turning on the shower tho now!) We will be building out of cob and will be doing a dual chamber with a wood fired bath with a heated flue bench and wee wooden enclosure that will be a sauna.

[catalyst]

our water comes from a well, is pumped up to a tank. we use mains electric mainly because we havent had the money or knowledge to consider renewables. portugals mains is estimated at 80% from hydro, wind and solar, so it doesnt bother me too much. we are hoping to move to a farm with waterfalls, and several kms from mains, so we can generate our own waterpower.

our buildings are then fed by gravity. the roof of the loo is normal portuguese building, concrete with tiles on - another thing i'll change next time round! as it is now, it means its cool inside, even on the hottest days.

until recently our loo was a wooden box over a hole under a tree - which worked, but not so nice on a rainy day!!

our shower, at the moment, is just a hosepipe in the sun, to a shower head - that works too, but we have to have bucket washes in the winter. when we move i want to buy one of these wood powered water heaters for showers etc.

my wife is dead keen on cob and turf roofs, but i'm not convinced we'd be able to grow grass all year round, as it dries out so much here in summer... perhaps we've have to cover a turf roof with drought tolerant succulents, i certainly dont want to use water to keep grass on a roof alive!!

our present bath is an enamel tub, which we can light a fire underneath, great in the winter, but in the summer its illegal to light outside fires (understandable with forest fires here).

your wooden structure looks interesting - but wood is pretty expensive here (makes no sense as we are surrounded by the stuff!!)...

[pureportugal]

you can see a photo of it at http://www.portugalsmallholding.org/?s=bath

[Thurston Garden]

Probably a daft question, but where does the pee go in a dry toilet? I imagine if all the pee went in, it would not be very dry?

[caithnesscrofter]

pretty good question considering!

Whether it be a dual compost chamber or bucket system with a big compost bin you always start it off by filling it almost all the way to the top with straw or hay which acts as a "bio sponge" and helps to absorb up the pee. The pile goes down incredibly fast. The idea is to keep this balance between and wet and dry in order for the thermophilic action to take place to break it all down (compost) and kill all the bacteria and pathogens. You keep adding dry materials like sawdust to maintain this balance and to keep the toilet odourfree. So, after you make a deposit.. you cover it.

Don't get me wrong. I believe in alot of asian countries the toilets do seperate the pee from the poo. But, isn't really necessary.

[catalyst]

ah, thats interesting. the bottom of our compost loo has a metal grid about 50 cm off the ground, so liquid can drain through, but we try not to add liquid, and did plan to put a wee seperator in, just havent got round to it.
ie. a plastic bottle cut off, glued to the front of the seat, so wee goes one way down a hose, and poo goes in the hole.

still think its weird to poo in your house!

[Thurston Garden]

Thanks CC! I have puzzled over this for a number of years. John Seymour shows a little mound of 'dry stuff' in his picture with a couple of twee clay plant pots on the outside 'to absorb moisture'. Now if out long term plan works out, we will be peeing in one of these in about 5/10 yrs time. Two men produce a load of pee and I just could not see some plants sucking it all up..... We would of course be watering the compost heap during the day (as is done now) but I am planning on lots of homebrew. Lots of Homebrew = Lots of Pee.

I can pee clearly now.....

[the.fee.fairy]

my, your composting loo looks comfy! i like the big wooden thing that the seat sits on!

Caithnesscrofter: you bath/sauna sounds good too. i wish we had more land so that i could build this kind of thing!

[catalyst]

i think it probably is better if men don't wee down it. it smells!

plus, its good for onions. i try to get to the garden each morning for my first wee of the day, and as i said, onions love it!

[Thurston Garden]

Aha, peeing on onions? Never heard of that, I always just pee on the compost heap.

I am having an Kelsae Onion http://www.kelso.bordernet.co.uk/specia ... nions.html competition with my Dad, so I might give the onions a sprinkling hhe

[catalyst]

cool, let us know how it works - perhaps i'll start a new topic in veg.

[bwaymark]

Hiya caithnesscrofter:

Quick question about the lugga loo.... is it sturdy? I was looking at them on ebay, and the look a bit flimsy but its hard to say

-Ben (a 20 stone bloke who goes through a lot of toilet seats!)

[caithnesscrofter]

We've not had any casualties yet! It's really just a bucket with a ahem.. loo seat. The lid (seat) comes off easy to clean and is made of sturdy but flexible plastic but, I wouldnae go so far as to say it was flimsy. I like to sit down not hunker over a plain ol' bucket.. I would say the retrofit seat is worth the £19.99 in the long run. Whether yer lanky, muckle boukit, or wee I think its pretty versatile.

[catalyst]

just came across this old post while googling!

we have finally gotten round to making a seperate site re compost loos:

http://www.composttoilet.org.uk

and lots more pics on there - it looks very nice now the moonflowers have grown....