off the net utilities

ConversazioniSustainability

Iscriviti a LibraryThing per pubblicare un messaggio.

off the net utilities

Questa conversazione è attualmente segnalata come "addormentata"—l'ultimo messaggio è più vecchio di 90 giorni. Puoi rianimarla postando una risposta.

12wonderY
Apr 28, 2011, 2:38 pm

Hi all. Most of the posts here look like theory and philosophy. I'm looking for help designing a low cost rainwater catchment system for household use, as well as a home-built composting toilet system.

I just bought the shell of a house and 5 acres in rural kentucky, and I need to make some decisions and get the ball rolling. Before I can get an electric permit, I need to get a plumbing permit. GRRRR.

Solar water and electric is possible later, but not immediately. KY doesn't recognize greywater except if it's laundry only, so I'll be putting in the basic septic tank and field.

I'm surfing the net, but, my gosh! there are so many options and details to consider.

More info - 1 bedroom, basic fixtures only - kitchen sink, bath sink and tub/shower. Planning to use 1 or 2 concrete septic tanks as cisterns and a compression tank for pressuring the system. Metal roof is perfect for catching the rain. It is very rural, so pollution is not an issue.

Gonna start with a 5 gallon bucket toilet, but want to consider something nicer as an add on. Have been reading on the humanure site.

Thanks!

2MaureenRoy
Gen 8, 2013, 4:32 pm

On the rural plumbing question, I think that some of the books posted on this Sustainability group in the last 6 months do address rural plumbing basics.

My own utility question is about off-the-grid refrigerators. I have been looking at the Lehmans catalog, but are there other catalogs available for off-grid refrigerators? Even extremely well-insulated electrically operated refrigerators would be of interest to my family. Thanks for reading.

32wonderY
Gen 8, 2013, 4:44 pm

Several of my neighbors have switched to using chest type freezers for refrigeration. I'm not sure of the details, but they modify the thermostat setting. They say it is shockingly cheaper to operate than a normal refrigerator. The downside is the need to run another freezer for it's intended use. These neighbors have personal homes, with the modified freezers, on communal land; and the freezer is located in the community building.

4mart1n
Gen 8, 2013, 4:54 pm

There's always the ultra low tech approach - if the winter weather is suitable then an ice house is option. Dig a big pit, fill it with ice in the winter and it'll hopefully keep all year. Worked for the Victorian manor house near me (actually the manor house has long gone, but the ice house is still there!).

5MaureenRoy
Mar 10, 2013, 5:37 pm

Everyone, thanks for the feedback on refrigerators. Our solar panels have a back-up diesel fuel system -- that fuel has always been pretty dirty, and now it's quite expensive. Most home solar systems have to have some kind of backup energy system ... our goal is to convert our backup system from diesel to a wind generator ... the new designs in wind generators have become startlingly compact ... so perhaps they're not bird-killers anymore.

It turns out that Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living (10th edition) has a lot of info on off-the-grid refrigeration, yippee ... I think that with your above answers and what Carla has to say, I'll be better prepared on the question of off-grid refrigeration.

62wonderY
Mar 11, 2013, 6:18 am

touchstones
Carla Emery
Encyclopedia of Country Living

checking it out.

7lturpin42
Mar 13, 2013, 3:46 pm

I think The Humanure Handbook is the standard reference for composting toilets, so you're probably in good hands there.

I know that Wisconsin allows a septic-with-wetland system to replace the standard septic-with-leach-field, as long as you fence the primary pond. You can grow fish in the secondary pond if you like. You might see if KY allows something similar.

82wonderY
Mar 13, 2013, 4:20 pm

They sorta do, but really don't. Their approved wetland design is seriously over-engineered and cost prohibitive.

9lturpin42
Mar 13, 2013, 4:28 pm

Well, that stinks! I'm sorry to hear that!

102wonderY
Apr 15, 2014, 12:17 pm

One of my neighbors showed me her refrigeration system. She has a chest type freezer on direct current (totally off-grid solar electric) and one of those top-of-the-line coolers that will stay cold for a week. She rotates gallon water jugs from freezer to cooler to keep the cooler at refrigerator temperatures for fresh perishables. Slightly more work, but quite elegant.

11John5918
Gen 4, 2015, 2:18 am

Just joined this group after an invitation from 2wonderY. I've had some experience with solar in Sudan and South Sudan over the last 30-odd years.

Back in the '80s when we were using fairly primitive solar at 12v DC we found that chest fridges were better as you don't lose the cold air every time you open them. Nowadays, with much better solar systems running on inverters at 240 v AC, we usually use normal fridges and it doesn't seem to be a problem as long as you don't open them too often. But still, a chest fridge/freezer would save power.

Back-up systems vary. Most people here seem to use diesel generators for larger scale systems, petrol for small ones. For my new house in Kenya I plan to use a combination of wind and solar, as the house will be on top of a very windy ridge. The nearest electricity grid is 20 km away, so that's not an option even if I wanted it, which I don't - mains electricity here is expensive and unreliable, you have to instal voltage stabilisers and surge protection, and you still need a back-up system for when the power goes off. I currently have a very small 5 kVA petrol generator which I might use as back-up - I'm told I'll probably need to run the generator whenever I use the welding machine. In the longer term, more for fun than practicality, I'll look for an old agricultural steam engine. A mate of mine who already has two reckons that there are loads of them rotting away on farms and ranches in remote parts of Kenya. If I can get hold of one and get it working then i can connect it to a generator and that would be a novel way of generating electricity as a back-up.

Harvesting rain water is fairly common here. Often it's very simple and low tech - just gutters leading to a pipe leading to a simple tank, either at ground level or underground. Many houses don't have indoor plumbing anyway, so you just get the water in a bucket from a tap in the tank (I remember in Uganda nearly forty years ago doing so in the dark and wondering why my hands were hurting when I touched the tap, only to realise that a column of ants were marching across the tap and rather a lot of them were biting me!) However our new house will have plumbing and we plan to store rain water in tanks in the basement and pump water up to a tank in the roof. We'll use passive solar for water heating. In Sudan with temperatures in the high 40s the water can get so hot just in the normal tank that you can't take a shower in the afternoon, but in the Kenyan highlands it gets chilly and a water heater is a welcome addition.

I think I've only seen composting toilets in the USA. Here the pit latrine is the most common form of non-plumbed toilet (well, that may not be true - squatting in a field may still be the most common). But we plan to have flushing toilets and a septic tank or biodigester.

Iscriviti per commentare