This quickly became a priority in our lives, and I have learned that we live in the best possible climate to compost our own humanure. This is further reinforced because we collect our own water, making us conscious of this valuable resource and how we can save, and reuse it.

The average home mixes 30,000L of water with solid excrement a year. This creates sewerage! A disgusting difficult to use waste product that must be treated with chemicals and then dumped further down the line into the systems that provide habitat for marine creatures and eventually water again for us.

Dry composting of humanure is a safe, natural and healthy way to break down the organic solids, kill the bacteria and parasites that may be there and then return the nutrient rich humous back to the soil where it can be used by plants to grow. In an area like ours with very old soil that was farmed, this is a vital top soil layer that will make it possible for us to complete our loop and move closer to full sustainability.

Our main considerations in choosing a site for the composting toilet were:
Convenient access; not to close, not to far. Pleasant walk, rain, hail and shine
Easy access for removal of compost
An open air aspect that can be private
A view
Flattish to minimise excavation work

The site we eventually chose was close enough to the house, without being too close. And more importantly, already pretty flat. The fallones type batch composting toilet chamber was our final design choice and is no small undertaking.

We chose the double chamber design for its durability and minimal maintenance. The batch design means the pile is left to compost where it falls for at least a year. No moving of half finished goods.
Recommendations from other owners/builders encouraged us in our decision.

For more information on the planning aspect of this composting toilet project see Toilet Planning in Work.

Here is part of the site, this had to be leveled with dirt from the deck and cut into the hill a bit:

We had the materials delivered by on a truck from Lismore.

A neighbour in our community had just lost his concreting job and it seemed like an ideal fit so we payed him to begin digging the foundations. We fit steel reinforcing under the chamber walls.

Our next blessing came along shortly after that. A friend came to live with us in the hut and he had concreting experience. The next phase the chamber floor slab and the walls went up so quickly I didn’t have time to get process photos!

Our very productive friend had to leave again at short notice and the composting toilet project stopped dead in it’s tracks.

The chamber walls were up and next we wanted to do the floating concrete slab. I found the whole concept a little baffling and the double chamber toilet didn’t move forward for over six months. It wasn’t until we met Bec at the Permaforest Trust that things resumed.

Bec grew up concreting and had all the enthusiasm we needed to things started again. She came out for an inspection and we decided with the PFT to have a working day finishing the slab.

The many hands made short work of the job that had seemed incomprehensible for so many months.

It was all done in a day.

With the floating slab out of the way it seemed like smooth sailing from there. I worked on the designs for upstairs portion, that process can be seen at the Toilet Planning Page in Work.

The next step was to create the pedestals. There is a divine proportion here that puts your rectum below your knees allowing a complete clearing of the bowel without requiring you to support your entire weight in a squat. Further reading is available in Ray Flanagan’s Plans.
They are made by using chicken wire wrapped around a plastic bucket.

At this time we got enthusiastic about getting on the loo and built a temporary privacy shelter. It was never used though, and shortly after collapsed in a big storm.

I also built a door for the chamber made of flooring, this quickly warped and opened gaps. A big no-no for this kind of system.

After the roof collapsed we decided to get real about a permanent shelter on our permanent toilet so we had some branches that were overhead pruned off.

Kirrah & I set to work making wall frames.

We had a very large snake come and hold things up again.

Once most of the frames were together, we had some local carpenters come and put them together.


Professionals can make a job seem very quick.

With the permanent frame together. I put the roof and wall cladding on.

I replaced the earlier attempt at making a door with a sheet of ply wood.

And we started using the toilet.

Once everything was functional, we got to work on the finishing.
Fly screens & mesh.

We discovered that some rats had eaten their way into the chamber through the ply door!

Our worm farm is simple enough. It works to transform kitchen organics and paper that don’t go to the Guinea Pigs into a ready to go mix of humus and seeds from the foods that we like.

Pumpkins flourish.

I think the most important thing is that it is convenient to use. We have a small organics bucket in the kitchen, it has a foot pedal, is labeled clearly, it seals tightly and has a lift-out bucket. This is then emptied into a converted wheely bin on the south (shady) side of our house. This system means that the whole kitchen – compost – herb garden connection involves walking about 10 meters, all undercover.

The worm farm wheely bin conversion has a flap cut at the bottom front. This flap has a few hinges attached so that castings (and worms) can be scooped out. It must be able to drain freely. The bin is lifted slightly off the ground on bricks. A bucket can catch the wormjuice.

It would probably benefit from a bit more oxygen, but it smells sweet and we make sure we keep things fluffy in there. Usually a couple of pages of wet newspaper (from the guinea pigs) get layed between food scraps that get emptied every other day. The bucket is then washed and poured over the top.

I check on the worms everyday because they are my pets and I like them to be happy. I’ve had to make a few alterations to the mix along the way. Just putting food in their isn’t enough and unlike compost, they aren’t too fond of grass either. Wet newspaper is heaven to our composting worms.

The worms themselves (and their sidekicks the bacteria) were sourced from the Permaforest Trust’s worming operation. It is important to get the right species of worm for the job, most will not tolerate being farmed. Ours love it.

This is especially so:
where small demand systems are remote from the grid.
in sunny dry climates where low rainfall limits wood and other biomass production
in sunny urban environments where solar cells can double as a roofing material.

The greatest value from solar cells may be their role in forcing us to reassess how precious electricity is and the inevitable conclusion the we should use it only for high-quality functions such as small electric motors, lighting and communications.
The increasing numbers of people living with autonomous solar power systems are the pioneers in a new culture of modest electricity use while continuing to participate in modern affluent society. The value of their actions may be far greater than any net energy gains or losses of solar cells.

(Excerpt from David Holmgren Page 98 of Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability)

Day 1.

When we first arrived at the house the only power supply was 100w of solar panels on the roof attached to 2 ageing heavy duty lead acid truck batteries. These were wired into two 40w halogen kitchen down-lights and a depressingly dim 4w cold cathode in the living room and as it was all 12v – a few cigarette lighter holes around the place.

Appropriateness
We live on the peaceful side of the community buffered from the road by acres of forest, the other side of our property is undeveloped pasture. This remoteness puts us far away from the existing grid infrastructure – it might have been possible to get mains electricity connected – but it wouldn’t have been any cheaper.

When actually getting the system, my perspective was that solar technology was still a little green – as in not yet ready. It is an area of incredibly rapid development. I was right.

In the 12 months since we have had our system installed – the cost of the equipment has halved, mostly due to a now more generous government incentive and in part due to scale of operations and efficiency in manufacturing. However – what we have done in that year with that additional feed hasn’t left me feeling ripped off.

Designing for Us

David Holmgren uses the phase “design cul-de-sac. It would take us more energy to figure out, understand and integrate new components into an old system than it would to just do a new work right over the top. (we had a similar situation with the existing hot and cold water systems).

We planned to leave the old system in place to continue to power just the fixed lights. With this new plan in mind – we were eligible for the federal government rebate. One of the conditions of the rebate was that you must use an installer who is recognised by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE ). Another is that you install a completely new system.

The terms of the rebate have changed significantly since our system was installed – see http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/renewable/pv/index.html

Their list of local installers yielded me about six likely candidates. A few of the larger groups such as Rainbow Power Company were consulted but quickly written off – I had a short list of smaller companies and continued to discuss my requirements and research with them until i’d exhausted all but one. Simon from SunSparks electrics. He is a mindful man who is raising money to build a school based on buddhist principles. He also sells Indian clothes at the local markets (we still discuss the ongoing system maintenance in passing at these local meeting places). I also trusted him, which I’ve come to find is a rare quality in the solar marketplace.

Working with him we drew up a sheet that would be submitted to greenhouse office outlining our expected power usage. This audit details;
Every device you plan to use
How much power it consumes
How long you plan to use it
Which devices you plan to use simultaneously
what gets used seasonally
And so on. This gives a very detailed awareness to needs and potential points of conservation.

A few patterns developed, one in particular to be aware of, anything that converts the high grade energy of electricity to the low grade of heat is a waste. A big one. Classic sucks of power like electric stoves (2,000w), hot water units(4,000w), air conditioning (a heat pump)(2000w), irons(1,000w), toasters(800w), electric kettles(600w) all consume so much power it would be ridiculous to run them on current solar technology. Thankfully they all have extremely low-imput alternatives.

So with our electrical desires laid bare we could move forward and submit our application for government assistance – it arrived two days later – the fastest approval in the history of the department. We took that as a good sign that we were on the right track.

We finally selected from the bottomless shopping cart of consumer electricals available for the affluent Australian:
A small refrigerator (200w)
A specially selected Fisher and Paykel Washing Machine (250w)
Construction Power tools (100w ~ 1000w)
Kitchen power tools (500w)
Laptop Computers (~100w)
LCD screen (150w)
Water transfer pump (750w)
A small stereo (50w)
Lights, lamps and small batteries (100w)

At this stage we were running a gas fridge – it was one of our goals to kick that habit. It burnt through considerable amount of gas and chose to run out during periods of heavy rain so that the gas man would arrive, unload and then rip up our hand built driveway of sand and gravel with skids and swearing on his way out. Twice.

The fridge is our single biggest consistent load. It is trumped in peak power by the water pump but that is run infrequently and selectively so that we can pump when there is full sun and batteries are at capacity. The first step was to scale down, a full size 220L fridge for two people who intend to grow their own food is too much. The fridge effect is closely related to the travel bag effect – no matter how large or small it will be filled. We kindly asked for the return of my old bar fridge – a much more suitable size. We don’t miss the volume either – a fridge is a place where high turnover is to be valued. The freezer section is big enough for leftover soup and a try of ice cubes.

However to run this little cold box for five days without sun and without damaging the longevity of the batteries still requires a considerable investment.

The Batteries were installed first; they must be kept charged at all times so they come full from the factory. This means we could use them to power the tools used to install the panels and other equipment.

Don’t be fooled by their bright, cheery and green appearance that is 500kg of lead and acid. They have an expected lifetime of 10 years. I think moving them back up the hill for recycling will probably take 10 years off my expected lifetime, So I am treating them with the respect they deserve.

They have never been below 75% of capacity – they float (fully charged) most days of the year. Buying enough capacity in the first place means that we are not really deep cycling them, our pattern of light usage and consistent maintenance will mean we can enjoy them to their full potential.

This is the inverter and the regulator. The regulator is the brain of the system. It connects and monitors the inputs and outputs from all the different elements in the system. It provides feedback to us about our usage and status of the system.

The Inverter converts the 24v Direct Current of the batteries and solar panels to the 240v Alternating Current that is the standard for home electrical systems in Australia.

As well as containing large amounts of toxic lead and hydrochloric acid the batteries also vent explosive hydrogen gas. One of the conditions of getting government support for Remote Area Power Systems is properly managing this hazard. We have done this by building a vented box around the batteries that sit in a tray. We also have instructions for safe handling and hazards.

The shiny side of the works can now be installed.

A special delivery from Japan.

It’s mostly silicon.

I much prefer the panel aesthetic to the umbilical cord that keeps most Aussie houses livable.

Beautiful….and then there is the
Maintenance

Taking responsibility for the supply of your own electricity is empowering.
But most of the work to support it is not glamorous. As well as a big financial commitment upfront there is regular ongoing maintenance.

Daily.
It is important to put the regulator somewhere you can see and access easily. Checking how much power came in, how much was used and how much is stored is the fun side of the routine, I do it daily.
Initially feeding back to others so that a lifetime of fat flow power usage habits can slowly change to a pattern that represents the natural flow can be challenging, but it is also very rewarding. We now both “know” days when we can use the big draw cards of power tools and water pumps.
We have also learned at what time of day we can use those things so that the batteries get enough power to recharge again so they aren’t sitting low overnight.

Weekly
The regulator is a really amazing device. Once a month I take enter the data it stores into my laptop and log all the data so I can graph it like the one below.

But it can’t tell me everything. I also test each battery (there are four) and make sure they are all returning a similar voltage. If one battery is malfunctioning it will pull the whole system down while it tries to keep it balanced.

Monthly
Once a month I am to check the specific gravity of the acid inside the batteries with an instrument called a hydrometer. This device gives the most accurate reading of individual cell health (their are 12 distinct cells in our system). It is used in correlation with an individual voltage measurement.
For our system in our part of the world a hydrometer reading of 1.250 and a voltage reading of 2.22 represents a full, happy and healthy cell.
This is the messy part (and the maintenance most often skipped).

These little guides tell me if I need to add any distilled water.

Half Yearly
I check the panels for grime and clean them with a glass cleaner, tighten all their nuts and bolts and check all the electrical connections for wear and corrosion. I also do a thorough check for things like rodents in the battery box and mud-wasp’s making houses.

Why Bother?
Ensuring that all this is done properly will return me 10-fold dividends in personal energy at the tail end the batteries life time. Which by keeping them floating in the top 15% of capacity is very far away still.

It also adds value to the investment – if I ever chose to sell – a comprehensive record of all the maintenance and long term patterns of usage allow a buyer to know what they are getting, and me to set a better price. It is also good for me – it keeps me responsible and continuously observing a big element in my increasingly complex system.

Feb 2007

One of our first new owner-builder without a clue moments was getting a bath installed. This meant fitting a tub in somewhere getting water as close as possible (at this stage still cold Webster’s creek water) and then having somewhere for it to go. While we were setting up a bathroom – we also setup a twin tub for washing clothes. We stuck with the homes original concept of pipe out onto the ground below to runoff for simplicities sake. From legality alone this was never going to do for the long term.

Feb 07

When I first introduced Jerem from the Permaforest Trust around my share a seed was planted to sort out the grey water situation.

We discussed the design brief over email.

Our soils are like beach sand. The initial idea was to line the terraced beds with clay so that the water would run through some water loving plants that would catch the bits. This would eventually lead into a banana circle. This was later amended to a simpler three tier design after the scope of the project day was also expended to float the slab on the composting toilet.

April 2007

So the big day arrived, it was also unfortunately pouring with rain. Jack managed the project with help from others. He dug out three beds and used a recently felled dead Mexican tree fern to hold them level.

Jack lays pipe – April 2007

We cut the original pipe just under the house and installed a small grease trap.
This is required by council law – there are good reasons to have it and good reasons not to. For our situation the main reason is that large chunks of food that might go down the kitchen sink could block the tiny holes that are drilled into the pvc distribution pipe. The main downside of trap is that it effectively forms an anaerobic environment – that’s the stinky way to break down organic matter. Unless s or p traps are used under all the sink holes – swamp gas rises from the pit and is piped right into the home!

I’ve been exposed to all manner of organic breakdown since I moved onto Avalon – and I’m fairly used to the worst of it. However it doesn’t really reflect well on my shining example of ecological living when guests visit and are greeted by a foul sewerage stench.

The bath and shower water bypass the trap entirely as it is intended for kitchen chunks.

Once the holes were drilled ag pipe is then threaded over the top. This is to give the holes some chance of not being filled by greedy roots trying to get to the source and clogging up the works. The holes are drilled on the top of the pvc pipe so the pipe fills with water and then leaks out of all the holes at once.

Once the beds were all setup, A boundary of Vetiver and Lomandra grass was planted. These are intended to stop the invasive grasses from entering the main beds.

As the soil has been heavily disturbed we mulched as quickly as possible – this will prevent the weed seeds in the soil bank from germinating.

A job well done!

Shortly after we visited the trust and harvested some Taro and Arrowroot root stock. We planted that in and have effectively left it to work.

August 2007

September 2007

October 2007

Our recent inspection of the grease trap revealed;

October 2007

November 2007

We have several gardens. Our main production at the moment is the kitchen greens garden on the deck which is prolifically producing Rainbow Chards and herbs.

This is watered by hand from a big old french wine barrel I bought on a whim by the side of the road coming out of Byron. The barrel is filled by the catchment of the teepee that is stretched over the deck. It can be booster filled by hose from the community water or rain water.

The kitchen greens garden is grown in an old bathtub, the old pumphouse and an old twin washing tub. All have drains, so all the water and nutrients are cycled from the twin tub, to the pumphouse and then finally to the bathtub. The bathtub drain is above a sink, and the sink drains into another bucket. By this point the water is almost clear again.

It is then poured onto the secondary herb gardens of mint, calendula, comfrey, thyme and more parsley. The water then returns to the ground. I’d like to get another bathtub in under the sink and then that into another bed without the need for me to move any more water by hand.

I can add worm castings, worm juice, seaweed extracts, and compost to the first bed in the chain and I know that by the end of the cycles most of the best nutrients have been taken up by the life in the soil.

As we come into Spring, we have prepared several more larger beds for more vegetables. This area was once dominated by a huge privot, a particularly noxious weed around this area. We had it removed by a kanga and some terraced beds cut into the hill.

A rockwall was built by Kirrah and her sister, and the space fenced off by Marc.
I collected two wheelbarrows full of cow manure from next door and we filled the back of Karlee + Marc’s ute “Dolly” with the slashings from the community pasture.
This was piled onto the beds and thoroughly soaked. I also added some of the soil life from a mixture of old compost.

At the top of this garden is our connection to the community water, this water is pumped from Webster’s Creek when it is above a certain level. It fills 60,000L’s of tanks that landmark the entrance of the community. From here it flows down to our share. We use it directly when it is pumping and also to fill a 9,000lt galvanised steel tank for storage on the top of the hill. This tank also collects the runoff from the bungalow shed roof.

Then down the hill to several taps including one in the new garden. At the moment there is just a tap – however I have plans to run an efficient drip irrigation system over the main beds. A drip system means less work watering and less water wasted as it is released under the mulch layer right where the plant wants it.

As the quality of the creek water is inferior to rain water our garden water systems are fundamentally different to the house water system.

Today we moved four posts and some 2×4′s that I am going to build my bike shed with into position. This freed a beautiful space where Kirrah created a garden. It is a raised bed using the besa bricks that kept the wood off the ground.

I fertilised today with seaweed. There is a new surge of growth with the coming of spring. I used the potency of two capfuls in four litres at the top of the system. The runoff will be cycled through another very productive bed. Then onto the tier two herbs and fruit trees.

I just finished watering and can hear the trickle as the water makes its way through the system. Beautiful design.

The context.

We live in one of the poorest council areas in Australia – Kyogle Council has more bridges and roads on hillsides per person than any other. These are essential and expensive,

So luxuries of the centralized urban experience like drinking quality water delivered to your tap at about a dollar a ton are low on the rural fringe. If you want to pass the buck, it costs $160 for 6000L of chlorinated town water to come to you on a truck.

Fortunately we have our own house roof that is 11m x 12m. That is giving us 131 square meters of catchment.

We do not pay per litre at all. We expect about 1300mm of rain a year here, free of charge. And that’s enough.

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=58037

The maths of a tin roof;

1m x 1m x 1mm = 1L (Love the metric system!)
11m x 12m x 1300mm = 171,600L total for the year.

That’s a lot! But it comes in downpours, especially during the hotter subtropical summer months. As we are quite reliant on a continuously available supply of clean, clear healthy water we have designed a system to be sure we can trust it to be there whenever we need it.

How much do we use?

Before we had electricity and a functional rainwater system, we washed our clothes by hand in creek water. This was a time consuming, tiring job that gave us inconsistent results. We now grow salad greens in our twin tub. With the arrival of electricity Kirrah’s father bought us a house warming present;

Our washing machine. It uses 73L a wash and we use it about 4 times a week. So 292L a week.
A shower uses 6.66L/m. We have only recently fitted a good shower complete with hotwater plumbed into the woodfire. So the data is still being collected. Today Kirrah showered for 6 minutes and 15 seconds. I Showered for 3 minutes and 30 seconds so 9 minutes 45 seconds. So 65L/day. Averaged to 330L a week.
We also bath. Each bath uses 75L we have about two a week. So 125L a week.
We drink at least six litres a day. We fill a stoneware filter by hand with a jug. 42 L a week.
We wash the dishes everyday and that is about 20 litres so another 140L a week

That sum total is 1199L a week.

We are able to moderate our usage. As feedback comes very directly from daily experience.

Recently it didn’t rain for two months. At the tail end of that small drought, we washed our clothes in Nimbin, bathed in an inch of water and rarely used the shower. We continued to drink six litres of beautiful filtered rainwater every day.

That experience motivated us gutter the larger side of our roof, (a job that hadn’t been done since the house was built in ’94!). Several days after we connected the new system and plumbed it in – it rained for 7 straight days. We recorded 175mm of rain. That was enough to fill our concrete tank to the brim – 23,000L.

Catch and Store
We have 46,000L’s of rainwater storage. The 46,000L is made up of two 23,000L tanks. The high side of our roof is so high that I would not climb a ladder to clean the gutters out.

So I had to buy several lengths of a completely self managing guttering system.

This is a photograph of an offcut, It has special filters that fit in those holes. Water enters the centre channel of the guttering through the filters. Leaves cannot and simply blow off. This is also the side of the house that fire is most likely to approach from (North North-West) I consider this additional expense appropriate.

A concrete tank is connected to the gutters. There is a poly tank at the top of the hill.

These two tanks are connected by a single 1 1/2″ poly pipe. This pipe allows water to be pumped up to the top of the hill and then to run back down under the pressure of gravity into the house.

There is a special procedure to manage this two way connection.

—————————————————-

Pumping Water

Before beginning the procedure – check the solar power and battery status. The pump is rated at 700w – a motor this size we can only use during the peak of a sunny day, unless in emergency. This way the panels feed the pump and not the drain the batteries.
If there is full sun and the batteries are high (90%+) we can move on to the next step.

Make sure there is enough water in the concrete tank – this is a simple visual inspection through the top. If the pump is allowed to run dry it will be damaged.

Now the details;
First turn off the master red tap, this stops water running down the hill from the poly header tank to the concrete base tank.
Then turn off the smaller red house connection, this prevents backflow from the house if someone turns on a tap while pumping.
Now we can open the gate at the base of the concrete tank – open it fully and then a half twist back.

If the top tank has been fully emptied the pump needs to be primed first. To prime the pump, open the red master tap.
Otherwise;
plug in the pump and then immediately open the red master tap. This should be done very closely – best done with two people.

The pump is now pumping water up the hill.

While pumping, keep an eye on the solar system readout.
Keep the battery voltage above 23.5v.
Best to pump while at least 20+ amps are coming in from the panels.
The normal range for the pump load is 45-55amps.

To Safely Stop Pumping Water
Pull the plug for the pump, quickly turn off the red master tap.
Now carefully turn the concrete tank gate valve shut. When it is fully tightened it will leak, so it must be eased off only slightly. Too much and water will run slowly back down the hill, too little and it will drip, drip, drip.

Now turn the red master tap back on and finally the house mains tap.

—————————————————-

Where does it go?
This rain water is plumbed into the bath, the shower and the kitchen sink (and their respective wetback hotwater system). The washing machine and several taps are connected to just the cold. The kitchen sink has only recently been plumbed into hot water thanks to available light, assistance and motivation.

We use a silver and activated charcoal ceramic gravity fed filter for our drinking water. We jug this from the kitchen tap several times a day.

Chopping wood and carrying water are two of the grounding day to day jobs of our reality.

Storage and technical Specifics
There are 8 rings on the poly tank, each ring is 2835L. A knock on the side of the tank will tell you how full it is.

We have about 7m of head, our pump Davey is model number xf221 and will pump about 200L/min or 12,000L/hour.

It pulls about 1050W(P1) and outputs about 780W(P2) of pump – the rest (270W) is dispersed as heat and noise.

P1 * time = pump Wh

1050w * 1h = 1050Wh

We have a 24v DC solar system which displays usage in amp hours. This is then converted (inverted) at 90% efficiency to 240v AC electricity that the pump wants.
Running the pump for an hour consumes 1050Wh / 24v = 48.125 amp-hours and pumps 12,000L.

To give a rough guide on how much water is being pumped it is possible to monitor each amp hour used on the solar system readout.

1 hour is 60 minutes.
So each minute the pump is on it uses .802 amp/hours and pumps about 200L of water.
Therefore each amp/hour is approximately 160L of water moved to the top of the hill.

I keep a record of this change in a log of water usage. The system is being constantly refined to our needs and the environment. I am currently very pleased with it. Water and Life.

Grey water

Grey water is treated on site in a special bed of Arrowroot, Taro, Comfrey and Tansy. This system was designed and installed on a work activity day organised by the Permaforest Trust. The kitchen and the bath are run through a grease trap. The bath needs an S bend installed to prevent swampgas from coming back up the line. There is debate in the greywater sphere about the effectiveness of greasetraps as they encourage anaerobic decomposition, however they are still the legal standard. From the greasetrap water feeds into three separate beds built on terrace.
The root crops are not to be eaten, but was can use them as rootstock for areas designed for food production.
The system is currently thriving and experiencing a burst of spring life.
Lomandra and Vetiva grasses have been planted to keep out invasive grasses.

A full and complete writeup of the process is at the House Grey Water System.

Improvements
Today Kirrah and I plumbed under the house a pipe that connects the wood fireplace water heater storage tank to the sink! We no longer need to carry 15 sloppy litres of hot water from the bathroom to the kitchen sink to wash up. We haven’t done that much more washing up – but it has made the whole process a lot easier!
I still carry 15 litre water buckets around everyday to water plants. Except tonight as it is raining!

I’ve kept regular records of all our energy and resource flows. Every month I enter the data from our solar power regulator that controls the flow electricity from our solar panels to our batteries. It also controls the flow from the batteries to the inverter.
I can use these records to check on the health of the batteries and to moderate our usage depending on how much is coming in.

Here are some examples of my records from October 2008:

The SOC stands for State of Charge. It is a percentage of our batteries that remains.

Here are my specifications, open to public comment and quote. We hope to have it installed shortly, as winter is upon us.

Click for High Resolution:

The fireplace is fitted with a wetback. The flue rises up through the mezzanene floor and then through the roof between our two photovoltaics. The solar hot water panel and tank is at least 500mm (50cm) lower again on the roof. The pipes will act as towel warmers as we make our way to our steaming showers.

Kirrah is concerned about the pitch of our roof, the tank is very heavy and we want to use experienced, harnessed and insured workers. This extends our time from glory and increases the cost – money well spent i’m sure.

EDIT:

We have revised our plans in the interest of expediting the works. We now have a winter plan and a summer plan, to be phased in accordingly.

This is the winter plan. Again the hot water out line is brief.