You’ll remember the saga of the blocked septic tank (fosse septique) and our subsequent removal of our normal flushing toilet for a compost (or sawdust) toilet.
Well, we’ve just had our bi-annual water bill and our water consumption over the past six months was half that of the previous period – 46 cubic metres instead of 100.
I’m pretty pleased with that. Not only do I pay less but we’ve managed to reduce consumtion despite having a constant stream of visitors since May (and all four of us having baths since there is currently no shower facility in the main house). As use of the compost loo is going well in all other respects, halved water bills is just another nail in the coffin of the ‘normal’ toilet! With a little more thoughtfullness, re-installing the shower and a couple more water butts in the garden I think we could reduce our consumption even further.
Rosie said
That’s an impressive reduction in water – well done. Mind you being on a water meter does focus the mind on ever more devious methods of saving water doesn’t it?
Laura said
It just shows how much water is wasted in a flushing toilet. We don’t pay for water as it comes from a natural source under the house, but it is our most precious resource. We are planning to build a compost loo this winter. So good to hear how much water it actually saves.
Alan said
Still think you should look at Anna Eddy’s book Solviva. She has two different composting toilets, rain catchment, composting, gray water, and solar compost sterilizers. If you are going to work with using human waste in the garden you need to consider sterilization. Check it out. The book is only about $25 US and it is well worth it.
Scarlet said
Welcome Alan,
Thanks for the recommendation. I’m afraid I don’t agree about the sterilisation, there is absolutely no need after careful thermophilic composting… and the compost will be used in our coppice and woodland, not on our vegetable patch.
Steve said
We would like to install a composting toilet ourselves, but it would be a major project as we are on level ground here, I am a still uncertain about using human compost on a vegetable patch, but it is, as you say, perfectly ok if composted properly.
Stuart & Gabrielle said
We’re with Scarlet on this one: An adult will produce around a wheelbarrow-ful of shite a year, which should then be composted for another year, either in a twin-vault system (swapping the vaults annually) or in external compost heaps. Urine is sterile but faeces have lots of nasty pathogens in them like e-coli so, if your compost heaps are external, you might want to make them child-proof, etc. After a year, the majority, but not all, of the pathogens will have died off, and it will be dry and crumbly with no bad odour. With a few pathogens still around, the sensible thing is to not use this particular compost with plants that have contact with the soil such as salad leaves. Chuck it around a fruit tree or any other edible crop that will not physically touch it, and you’ll be fine.
Urine, on the other hand, is sterile as it leaves the body and a great source of nitrogen, so you can use this one the garden, either watered down 10:1 with water as a liquid fertiliser (use straight away, don’t store) or pee on some carbon rich material, such as sawdust, a straw bale or even some paperbacks (see our own blog of Sept 20th) to turn it into another form of compost, which you can use anywhere.
Nice blog, Scarlet, and fun to read of someone really saving water as compared to reading the theory in the books.
Lisa Paul said
We went in the other direction with the outhouse near our tent cabin (where we hung out while building on our otherwise virgin land). It was impractical to bring in water, so we went with fire: an Incinolet! (Best marketing tagline: turns your waste into sterile ash.) Since the tent cabin is now our “guest quarters”, the Incinolet is fascinating a long string of visitors — once they get used to the idea that a “flush” ignites a fire.
Scarlet said
Hi Lisa,
That is the maddest thing I ever heard!! I had no idea such things existed – what a fantastic, low-maintenance idea. Just don’t start the fire ’til you’ve stood up, I guess?!