permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

On 2/23/2011 12:17 PM, Neil Bertrando wrote:
> I followed this train of thought through till we hit some financial
> setbacks.  still on the drawing board for county approved toilets, although
> we have some engineered plans we can share if you like....still need some
> feedback on them too.

I may need to build one of these myself for use by 
intern-market-gardeners working part of my land I am loaning to a local 
food bank.

A few questions:
1) what to do if the CT is not a squat type but has an elevated seat:
how to deal with the possibility of the presence of black widow spiders
- distasteful question but necessary in constructing a working system

- I'll post more questions later today when I have more time.

> I have several documents I can send you off list if you like as well.
>
> My thoughts on high levels of use are either large batch chambers or a
> removable batch container (ie. wheelie bin, 55 gal. barrel, etc.) so you can

The wheelie bin sounds like a good idea; has this ever been used?

> manage for various use levels that may be unpredictable during the design
> phase.  In the latter case, you need to find a place to store these (an
> passive solar, insulated cob closet???)  In either case the system could
> have a large footprint.

> I prefer to avoid the urine diversion systems and balance with good
> ventilation, a significant carbon sponge, and behavioral systems (i.e. guys
> pee in the bush when possible), then drainage if necessary.  for balancing

Always save pee in buckets to pour down gopher and vole holes and spread 
around gardens to deter deer.

> moisture look at the wet tropics compost toilet systems.
>
> also "the composting toilet book". by david del porto is a very useful
> reference.
>
> for temperature, insulation is important, you could also consider some solar
> thermal air heaters, flat plate or tube collectors can be fabricated with

I would like to see some good flat plate and other solar thermal 
collector designs. What is a tube collector?

> mostly recycled materials. not sure how well they would work at your
> latitude, but you could set up some louvres to manage the system...  here's
> a website for more info and some designs.
> http://www.knowledgepublications.com/heat/solar_air_heating_full_product.htm
>
> RE: some resources here's the text from another email thread
>
> best of luck,
> neil
>
> As per Request, here's the links I recieved, which demonstrate recent trends
> around this issue in various states.  Good starting places for contacting
> people who are dealing directly with the process.
>
> http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/cities-contemplate-the-composting-toilet/
> http://www.sonomacountygazette.com/blog/2009/12/sonoma-county-composting-toilet-project.html
> http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1945764,00.html
>
> "Call the Inyo County Planning Department at 760-878-0263.  Years ago a
> strawbale house was put up in Independence, Ca that had the first permitted
> composting toilet in California, I believe"
>
> The Washington State Document was really helpful since they have best
> management practices and codes as well as design criteria (although not
> engineered specs).
> the PDF link is
> http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/ts/ww/Water_Conservation_8-29-07.pdf
> also they have a whole array of documents listed alphabetically here:
> http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/ts/ww/pubs-ww-all-bytitle.htm