Humanure? Composting toilets?

bluefish · #21 02/26/15, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forerunner

Very healthy attitude and practice toward composting, if I do say so, myself.

Now build a pile big enough to at least bury a cow, already.

Does a calf count?

You have no idea how much I want huge piles like yours. I have so many plans that involve compost and so little crap.

Everybody around here uses all their stuff, though. The town dump even has a composting operation. The nearest sale barn is 60 miles away and they sell their stuff. So, for the moment, everything is in house.

Forerunner · #22 02/26/15, 10:42 AM

Well, you'll just haftuh bulk up on carbon and start haulin' in road kill.......

ET1 SS · #23 02/26/15, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blodeuwedd

Does anyone have composting toilets?

Yes, a lot of homes use composting toilets.

Quote:

... My big question is we are going to have all grey water in our house filtered and pumped out (haven't completely decided what I want to use it for). My big question is, I wouldn't be able to wash cloth diapers and let the water run into the grey water system. I figured I would either wash them by hand or divert the water from the washer into a container.

I am not familiar with anyone 'filtering' their grey-water.

The grey-water 'system' is usually a garden.

What are you thinking a 'container' will do?

Quote:

... The big question is, what would I do with all the water from washing them? Could I pour it into the composting piles, or would that make it too wet? I don't know how to dispose of it. Could I just build a basic outhouse to pour it down? We are planning on having electric in combination with a solar well pump, grey water system, wood furnace, and composting the toilets. Eventually we will add in a solar panel system, but the electric for the beginning will be for appliances and what not.

Water soaks into the ground all by itself.

farmer · #24 02/26/15, 12:24 PM

We do! We we using sawdust toilets exclusively for about 8 years. Last year I had a water toilet installed in our house bathroom, but still have sawdust in our outhouse and in our bedroom (as our "master bath" lol). I LOVE our compost toilet system, and really only went to the water toilet due to having a bunch of teens, a toddler, and heavy snow--for the past few winters I had modified my winter approach by using 30 gallon trash cans (with holes drilled in them) in an unused greenhouse bed, which was fine, except that it wasn't entirely smell-free, and we moved our bedroom into the studio which is adjacent to the greenhouse, and I needed the bed to grow stuff....

Anyway, the other thing I did, was to do diaper-free with our baby. I did it with my first son (child #4), years ago, and wish I had known about it for my girls. Anyway, I used waterproof (cloth) training pants for the occasional "miss" and it was really neat. He's now 22 months and has been in cloth undies for quite a while. I used cloth diapers for my three girls, but this really was so much healthier and easier in the long run. If you'd like more info, I can share, but probably in another thread. :P

Buffy in Dallas · #25 02/27/15, 12:27 AM

Another good book... http://www.liquidgoldbook.com/

Blodeuwedd · #26 02/27/15, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ET1 SS

Yes, a lot of homes use composting toilets.

I am not familiar with anyone 'filtering' their grey-water.

The grey-water 'system' is usually a garden.

What are you thinking a 'container' will do?

Water soaks into the ground all by itself.

The point in filtering the grey water is to get it as "clean" as possible so it can go directly into a pond without causing an overload of algae growth. Which I though would be a nice idea to do with some of it.

Rustaholic · #27 02/28/15, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blodeuwedd

The point in filtering the grey water is to get it as "clean" as possible so it can go directly into a pond without causing an overload of algae growth. Which I though would be a nice idea to do with some of it.

Me too.
For the last two years we have been pumping the washing machine water out to the yard.
In time I will get my root cellar built and part of it will have a couple 55 gallon drums. One to take the water from the washer and the other full of sand to filter the water before it is pumped to the garden beds.
I will need a lot of barrels or some large tank to store filtered water over the Winter. That is the part of this my mind hasn't got to yet.
I do have a couple large tanks.
Years ago when we had a swimming pool it just used a five gallon sand filter.

ET1 SS · #28 02/28/15, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blodeuwedd

The point in filtering the grey water is to get it as "clean" as possible so it can go directly into a pond without causing an overload of algae growth. Which I though would be a nice idea to do with some of it.

Filtering to prevent algae bloom, means your trying to filter nitrogen. Isn't that going to be an extremely expensive filter system?

ET1 SS · #29 02/28/15, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustaholic

Me too.
For the last two years we have been pumping the washing machine water out to the yard.
In time I will get my root cellar built and part of it will have a couple 55 gallon drums. One to take the water from the washer and the other full of sand to filter the water before it is pumped to the garden beds.
I will need a lot of barrels or some large tank to store filtered water over the Winter. That is the part of this my mind hasn't got to yet.
I do have a couple large tanks.
Years ago when we had a swimming pool it just used a five gallon sand filter.

I have tried storing water in drums over-winter.

How are you thinking to keep them from freezing?

DEKE01 · #30 02/28/15, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustaholic

Me too.
For the last two years we have been pumping the washing machine water out to the yard.
In time I will get my root cellar built and part of it will have a couple 55 gallon drums. One to take the water from the washer and the other full of sand to filter the water before it is pumped to the garden beds.
I will need a lot of barrels or some large tank to store filtered water over the Winter. That is the part of this my mind hasn't got to yet.
I do have a couple large tanks.
Years ago when we had a swimming pool it just used a five gallon sand filter.

if it is grey water and going to the garden, why isn't your garden your filter system? What would be in grey water you would fear harming the garden?

If the greywater is laundry, kitchen sink, bath water, etc any bad stuff is going to be extremely diluted. If you are worrying about petroleum distillates in your wash, that I could understand trying to filter out, but I'm guessing it won't take much of that to foul a sand filter or most any other kind of filter.

BohemianWaxwing · #31 03/02/15, 05:56 AM

Creating an Oasis with Greywater is a quite affordable book and will save a lot of headache and possibly prevent a disease outbreak or two. He has a lot of the info for free on his website. Please look through it! Stored grey water goes septic (aka stinky) quickly. And pumping and filtering it is almost never cost effective unless you're looking to save an institutional quantity of water by doing so.

Rustaholic · #32 03/02/15, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ET1 SS

I have tried storing water in drums over-winter.

How are you thinking to keep them from freezing?

Didn't you read the part about the root cellar?
It is underground.

Rustaholic · #33 03/02/15, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DEKE01

if it is grey water and going to the garden, why isn't your garden your filter system? What would be in grey water you would fear harming the garden?

If the greywater is laundry, kitchen sink, bath water, etc any bad stuff is going to be extremely diluted. If you are worrying about petroleum distillates in your wash, that I could understand trying to filter out, but I'm guessing it won't take much of that to foul a sand filter or most any other kind of filter.

It would take a while for it to foul / plug a 55 gallon sand filter.
There are no petroleum distillates in the laundry soap I make.
Just once in a while greasy clothes but I try to avoid that.