The Self-Sufficiency Handbook. Alan Bridgewater
off-grid.
Toilet Systems
When we go to the bathroom on our beautiful, shiny, hygienic toilets, we do our business and then flush it on its way with a lot of expensive, clean drinking water. There is no denying that the development of the flush toilet is wonderful in the sense that we have done away with flies, rats, cholera, and all the other problems associated with open sewers, but the issue that we now have is the vast amount of high-quality drinking water that we use for flushing. It is expensive and wasteful in terms of energy and resources.
A modern toilet is convenient but wastes high-quality water.
As to what happens to our excrement after flushing, much depends upon where you live. Now, more often than not, it is sent to the sewers. If you live in the country, chances are that you have either a cesspool or a septic tank.
When I was a kid in England in the 1950s and living in the country, going to “the bog,” or earth closet, was a very primitive affair that involved walking outside to a little windowless building at the edge of the orchard, sitting over a great dark hole on a wooden shelf-like seat, peering out through a line of little V-cuts that ran along the top of the door, doing my business, and then, at the end of it all, sifting a handful of dry earth or ash over my excremental offerings. It was an ordinary, everyday, never-give-it-a-thought experience—no shiny white tiles or running water, just lots of spiders, mice, strong smells, darkness, and strange gurgling noises.
An earth closet is a type of outhouse: a toilet with no plumbing.
Every day or so, when the bucket was just about overflowing, my grandfather would take it to the back end of the orchard, empty it into an open pit, and cover it with a few shovelfuls of earth. When the pit was nearly full, he would fill it up with earth and then dig another pit. After about two years and twelve or so pits, he would go back to the first pit and dig out the contents—a beautiful, brown, friable (crumbly and loamy) mix with no unpleasant odors—and spread it over the garden.
An example of a dry closet, or composting toilet.
Eco-Friendly Options
Using high-quality water to flush our excrement is a bad idea for many reasons—the main reason being that it is a waste of clean water. Sewer systems are good, especially when they return the end product to the land, but it is expensive in terms of transport and resources. There have been experiments with bio-digesters—systems that turn sewage into gas—but really this only works on a town- or community-wide scale or for farmers who have mountains of manure to dispose of. A cesspool is no more than a pit that needs emptying, and it still needs the water flush. Septic tanks are good solutions for those who live in the country; while it still uses water, it could be gray water. Currently, one of the best options in the context of self-sufficiency is to use a system, such as those made by the global company Clivus Multrum, that turns the waste into compost—a modern spin on my grandfather’s process of burying the waste for a couple of years and then putting it back onto the land.
The Clivus System
The Clivus (pronounced “CLEAVE-us”) is a fiber-and-plastic box, about the size of a small room, that is fitted with pipes: two large pipes going up (one up to the toilet and the other up to the kitchen), sometimes another smaller pipe going to another sink, and a large pipe or flue going up and out at roof level. You use the toilet or work in the kitchen and drop scraps of waste down a hatch. Either way, the waste falls into the enclosed container, where it gradually breaks down. It’s very much like my grandfather’s hole-in-the-ground scenario; after a year or two, you can shovel out the most beautiful compost.
• Does it smell? No, for the most part. The downdraft from the toilet is so strong that the smells are drawn down from the kitchen and toilet and sent up the chimney.
• Is it safe? Yes. The process is such that the resultant compost is perfectly safe and user-friendly.
• Does the compost look like excrement? No. It breaks down to a fine, friable, golden-brown tilth that is good enough to spread on the garden.
• Does the process need water? No more than you would expect to get from urine and kitchen waste.
• Can it be installed anywhere? No. Because you need to have easy access to the emptying hatch, it needs to be installed in a basement, in a split-level house on a sloping site, or downstairs in a two-story house in which the kitchen and toilet are upstairs.
• Are there any problems? Yes. Flies like the smell, but the company has made design modifications, such as the addition of extractor fans to increase the updraft and discourage the flies.
• What happens to the gray water from the house? You can either put it down the public sewer or, if space allows, drain it off into the garden.
Solar Power
Solar power is a term we use to describe various methods of using the light and heat of the sun to provide us with energy. There are many methods we can use to transform solar energy (see “Solar Options”).
We all know about the heat from the sun. In very basic terms, it is hotter at noon than at sunrise or sunset, and it is warmer at the equator than at the poles. The amount of solar energy that reaches Earth—and thereby reaches us—is determined by the angle at which sunlight strikes its target and by heat absorption. If we wear black clothes, we feel hot; if we wear white clothes, we feel cooler. Black absorbs more heat from the wavelengths in the sun’s spectrum than white. Some experts hold the opinion that dark matte green maximizes heat absorption even better than matte black.
Solar Options
• Positioning our homes so that large windows face the sun at midday
• Using passive storage masses, which are heat-absorbing walls of concrete and brick that absorb the sun’s heat
• Using window treatments, such as shutters and curtains, to hold in heat
• Using high-spectrum insulation in the walls, floors, and ceilings
Large windows allow the sun’s light and heat into the home.
• Using active storage-mass solar panels in which the sun heats a black-painted surface and the resultant hot air is pumped around the building
• Using active solar panels in which fluid is heated and pumped into the heating system
• Using photovoltaic cells, which transfer solar energy into electricity
• Using solar flues and chimneys to create cool airflow from hot air
Passive Direct Solar Gain
Regarding the use of solar power to warm our homes, most of us are already doing it via passive direct solar gain. This means that we have shaped our houses so they are, in effect, well-insulated boxes with windows facing the sun at midday. The sunlight shines through the windows onto the various walls, floors, and pieces of furniture within the house, where it is collected and stored as heat energy. If the night is cool, we draw the curtains or shutters to retain the