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Feb 2022
6:15pm, 21 Feb 2022
2,918 posts
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JRitchie
Good news on wind and price impacts. With cfd of electricity prices are high then the government gets back the difference between the guaranteed price to the wind generator and the market price.
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Feb 2022
7:32pm, 21 Feb 2022
86,077 posts
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Hanneke
I have looked into it, because in my previous property, we had no mains water and because of its location, impossible to be connected!
As Happy says, once I have a solar/wind system in place, I really want to get off the grid for water too! Our water is very poor quality, I had it tested, so I filter it for consumption already anyway!
I prefer a borehole. The water in my previous house was mineral water quality! My current water tastes and smells either off or so chlorinated that I stopped drinking. As I didn't want to buy bottled water, I invested in a purification system. I may as well run a rain water harvesting system through it!!!
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Feb 2022
1:23pm, 22 Feb 2022
4,902 posts
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run free
JR - I would use rain water for a lot more than for flushing loos - laundry, washing hair, etc. Am with Hanneke about using grey water for flushing loos, washing cars/windows/floors. Hanneke - have you looked at compostable toilets?
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Feb 2022
1:28pm, 22 Feb 2022
41,578 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Ooh, we're getting a composting toilet for our outdoor use at barn. Actually 2 ahem, receptors, with a single, ahem, producer, and you swap them over periodically and they ahem, break down. No chems, all natural apparently. My wife saw it working at another horse yard.
Prefer that to a plastic portaloo and diesel truck to come and hoover it out periodically. Or the build of full flushing mains water alternative.  G
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Feb 2022
2:18pm, 22 Feb 2022
24,383 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
We're looking at getting a Biolan composting toilet for the Scouts' woodland. Not cheap though, but I think it's a good way to go ( )
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Feb 2022
2:31pm, 22 Feb 2022
17,544 posts
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3M (aka MarkyMarkMark)
One of my friends built a composting toilet for use in his camping field as a lockdown activity (whilst the rest of us weren't learning Spanish or whatever!). It was fairly easily deconstructed/reconstructed.
It made the local press and a "what we did in lockdown" exhibition. It was a bit different to the various works of art on display!
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Feb 2022
3:10pm, 22 Feb 2022
86,091 posts
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Hanneke
Yes, RF, and it won't pass rigorous health, safety, food hygiene standards in a building where herbal medicine is produced and Naturopathy, Herbalism and Yoga Therapy is practiced. Also, not sustainable to retrofit 2 loos in the house!
I would have had to set up a building half the floorplan of my workshop, containing what Happy describes, two HUGE pits and it has to be disabled sized so 3x6 metres 😱 my workshop is 5x7! My chapel is 6 x 10! And: not exactly ideal, having to go downstairs, out of the house, in the dark, in winter, so could be wet, frozen etc, to spend a penny! I go twice in the night.
I am aiming for off grid with on grid comforts...
Also: empirical evidence suggests that govt regulations are set to discourage ecologically sound practices! There is no science behind their motto: compost loos spread diseases!
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Feb 2022
3:14pm, 22 Feb 2022
86,092 posts
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Hanneke
Also: for my setup,it makes much more sense to directly fertilise my food forest through a reed bedded long, narrow soakaway! Much less invasive than building ANOTHER building, which would mean sacrificing passive solar cold frames, a lot of growing space and a lot of carbon!
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Feb 2022
3:14pm, 22 Feb 2022
86,093 posts
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Hanneke
The pump will run on solar... OK, the pipe is plastic, but it will last...
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Feb 2022
12:22pm, 23 Feb 2022
4,903 posts
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run free
@Hanneke Am assuming all your guttering would be plastic. Plastic is a good material in the right context. Just that we have gone overboard with it to have convenience and for packaging sake.
Interesting to hear about the composting toilets. How long would you leave the toilet excrement in a composting heap to ensure it does not spread disease?
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