Practically off the grid!

Whether your making plans to harvest and save your own rain water or are just practicing frugal and environmentally conscious living, careful water use is a must.  In 2001, the average Canadian used 335 litres of water each day in their home (Shrubsole and Draper, 2007).  This is a huge sum that does not even begin to account for the water use associated with our lifestyle but it is a number I will use for now to keep things simple.  I will also just focus on water consumption in the shower in this article even though there are many other areas in which to consider water conservation.

Let us begin by estimating the water use for a typical shower with a typical shower head.  A common shower head will have a flow rate close to 10 litres/minute and let’s assume a typical person showers for 5 minutes. A simple calculation shows us a 5 minute shower with a standard shower head will use about 50 litres of water.

Next let’s figure out how much water we could save with a low flow shower head.  A photo of my shower head is shown below.  It is called the Lowest Flow Shower Head and has an impressive flow rate.  At 80 psi it delivers 2.25 gpm as a maximum flow rate but under average conditions it will deliver more like 1.2 gpm.  I wanted to know the exact flow rate of my shower head so I measured it myself by turning on the shower for 30 seconds and measuring the volume of water I collected in a pail in that time.  In 30 seconds I collected 1.3 litres so that is a flow rate of 2.6 lpm or 0.7 gpm.  Assuming I only buy the shower head and make no changes to my showering habits I have just reduced my water consumption by 75% to 13 litres/minute!

Low flow shower head

In addition to the low flow rate, this shower head also features a cut off valve.  This allows to really scrimp and save by cutting off your water supply to soap up.  Because the valve is right on the shower head you can turn the water on and off without having to adjust the water to the right temperature every time.  Using this feature it is easy to shower at a relaxed pace with 2 minutes or less of water usage.  With that low flow rate this feature and this shower head cut off valve I can have a comfortable shower with only 5.2 litres of water.  I’d be hard pressed to sponge bath with less than that.

So it’s obvious that the water savings are possible but does this also save us a significant amount of money.  My local cost for water usage is 0.036 cents/cu.ft. or 0.0013 cents/litre. If I use a standard shower head for a 5 minute shower every day for 1 year I would use 18,250 litres at a cost of $23.  If I use my low flow shower head for a 5 minute shower every day for 1 year I would only use 4745 litres at a cost of $6.  I bought this low flow shower head a few years ago for something like $8 so it has easily paid for itself and has been saving me money each day.  

Wait! There are even more savings to consider.  That water that was not used does not need to be heated now so there is also a savings of energy.  The difference in water use for a year was 13,505 litres and each of those litres must be heated from an average ground temperature of about 7 degrees celsius to about 45 degrees celsius.  It takes 4.2 KJ of energy to heat 1 litre of water by 1 degree celsius and let’s be generous and imagine you have a 100% efficient water heater.  The heating of 13,505 litres of water from 7 to 45 degrees celsius would require 2,155,398 KJ of energy or 2,042,923 BTUs or 600kWh.  I pay 11 cents/kwh here so that would mean a total cost savings of $66/year and bring the total cost savings to $83/year.  Alternatively, heating the water with a 100% efficient natural gas boiler would mean paying 0.024 cents/kWh of natural gas for a lower cost savings of $14/year and a total savings of $31/year.  The money saved for one person per year with relatively short showers may not be that remarkable to you but consider the savings with a family of 4 and with and perhaps with more generous 10 minute showers.  The savings of water, energy and money begin to add up significantly. 

Low flow shower heads did not seem to be very common even just a few years ago in Canada but even then they were easy to find online.  Today, they are much more common.  I recently saw a few low flow shower head models equipped with stop valves at Canadian Tire and if a product is at Canadian Tire you know it’s accepted as mainstream so you should not have any trouble finding one of these shower heads at your local plumbing or hardware store.  Pick one up and try it out!

I am in the process of completing a few renovations in my home and given the need to paint a new wall I have built I thought it would be a good opportunity to experiment with making my own paint.  I have experimented with alis finish coats in the past but have been curious for some time about the quality of home made milk paints. 

Milk paints use curds mixed with a base solution such as borax or lime for a binder and then pigments and thickeners can be added to achieve the color and texture desired.   They dry to a flat finish and resist dusting well and apparently can be wiped clean but I’ll have to report more on the durability of the paint another time as I am just getting started now.

Materials and equipment needed:

vinegar

skim milk

pigments

blender

oven

strainer or cheesecloth

measuring cups

Here is the procedure I have been using to make the paint:

1.  Make your own quark or curds.  This is done by adding 2 cups of vinegar to 1 gallon of skim milk.  Then let the mixture sit over night in a warm place.  I have been heating up my oven slightly and letting the mix sit in there.  I have read a variety of advice about the ideal temperature.  Something between 115F and 150F seems to work fine for me. 

vinegar and skim milk

milk curdling in oven

2.  Strain the curds using a strainer or cheesecloth.

preparation for straining

separated curds

3.  Using a double boiler add 3 tablespoons of borax to 1/2 cup of water.  Stir until the borax is dissolved.

4.  Combine 2 cups of curds with borax solution in a blender and mix until smooth and gooey.  I have found I need to add a bit of water at this stage occasionally.  It depends how dry the curds are.

5.  Add pigment.  Conduct a bunch of smaller scale experiments before you start making large batches.  For my living room walls I have been using 1 cup of titanium oxide and 4 tablespoons of ilmenite.  This produces a dark granite color.  You may wonder what the point is of adding white pigment to a paint you want to be dark.  It seems like the white gives the paint an opaque base to build upon.  In experiments I did without white pigment, the paint was more transparent and didn’t cover the wall as well as a result.    Continue to mix the paint with the blender.  I don’t know yet if it is possible to mix the paint too much but if you don’t mix it enough you will find some streaks of undissolved pigment.  Some recipes you find may suggest that you slake you pigment first overnight but the blending method seems to work fine for me using dry pigment.  I do add some extra water as needed to obtain the desired consistency.

borax and pigments

 I have been able to find natural mineral pigments at a local clay supply store. In the photo above are titanium oxide (white), yellow ochre, iron oxide (red), chrome oxide (green) and ilmenite (blue-grey).  You can mix the pigments to get other colors but they do mix a little unpredictably so lots of experimentation will be necessary if you want to figure out your own colors.  I was able to match my couch color though with pretty minimal trial and error.  I ended up adding a pinch of green to yellow ochre to produce that top creamy yellow color in the photo. 

some of my test colors

mixing paint in blender

6.  Apply the paint with a brush or roller.   You’ll notice as in the photo below that the color lightens and darkens as it dries so do make sure to match colors to dried test samples.  

start of first coat

7.  Clean up with water.

That’s all there is to it.  The paint has been nice to work with so far.  It has a consistency surprisingly similar to store bought paint.  It has been fun to make every time because I am always impressed that it is just milk borax and pigment.  I’m now almost finished the second coat of my living room and the paint is still adhering well.  I am looking forward to figuring out different color mixes for my other rooms.  If you give this a try or have some previous experience with making your own paint I’d love to hear about it.

The advice “you get what you pay for” often holds true but the Envirolet toilet has got to be one major exception to this theory.  I learned this the hard way by coughing up a serious amount of cash for this toilet and experimenting tirelessly but ultimately unsuccessfully to get the toilet to live up to Envirlet’s claims.

What exactly are Envirolet’s claims?  Well, I chose the waterless self-contained model, Envirolet MS10 because it seemed to be match my needs quite well.   The description of the toilet found here begins with “If you appreciate functional simplicity, Envirolet® Waterless Self-Contained Systems are the perfect choice.”  I appreciate functional simplicity.  That sounds great.  This toilet must be for me.   So I read on… I knew the toilet would be used by 3 people full time and I learned that this toilet was rated for 6 people full time.  Great! There should be lots of room to spare right?  Then I saw that it costs $1700.00?  That is pretty expensive but I guess I would rather pay for a system that is going to work then buy some cheap alternative that turns out to be a failure.  

It was really important to me to try a composting toilet to stop contributing to keep my sewage out of the river so I was willing to spend the money.  In fact, I felt good about spending the money for a noble cause.  Still, I had a few obvious concerns about the operation of the composting toilet.  Would it smell?  Would my guests be willing to use it?  Would it really turn human waste into fresh smelling soil?  I read on and was assured by phrases like “odor-free”, “simple to use”, and “totally reliable and highly efficient”.  I was further encouraged by testimonials of customers on the Envirolet website.  The Use and Care section prepared me for the maintenance activities that would be required to operate the unit and everything there looked quite reasonable as well.  So with all of this assurance (and I’m still embarrassed to say it) I placed an order for my first and last Envirolet toilet.

I will give Envirolet credit for living up to one of their claims and that is the ease of installation.  I had a special electrical outlet wired in behind the toilet space and ran the vent right up through the roof.  I finished the set up by  depositing the starter soil as directed and began to use the toilet on a regular basis following instructions carefully.

Newly installed Envirolet toilet

My initial impression was positive.  There was certainly no smell to begin with which is quite a treat. The built in fan constantly exhausts air up the vent so even the foulest odors will never reach your nose …although you might occasionally catch a nasty waft outside as I would later find.  Our household also got used to the new routines pretty quickly.  There is not much to it as you can see from these steps provided by Envirolet:

Operating your Envirolet® is easy! Just follow the simple directions below for proper system operation.

SYSTEM START-UP
1. Spread Envirolet® Premix Starter Kit evenly over Paper Mat.
2. Gently sprinkle 1 warm glass of water over Premix Starter material inside Envirolet System.

DAY-TO-DAY OPERATION
Add 1/4 cup of Peat Moss (standard, garden variety) per person per day through the Bowl (Self-Contained Systems) or through the Service Panel (Remote Systems).

WEEK-TO-WEEK OPERATION
1. Agitate the mass by pulling the Aerator Bar (top bar) back and forth.
2. Add Sancor™ Microbe Accelerator evenly over the mass once every two weeks with a warm glass of water (see package instructions).

NOTE: Only use the Rake Bar (bottom bar) when emptying your Envirolet System.

SYSTEM CLEANING: 
1. Spray inside of bowl with an organic cleaner or mild soap mixed with a small amount of water.
2. Clean the bowl as you would any ceramic toilet bowl. In Self-Contained Systems, the bowl removes for easy cleaning.

NOTE: Do Not use any harsh chemicals to clean your Envirolet® Systems. Chemicals can affect the natural composting process.

Please contact Sancor™ if you have any questions regarding the operation of your Envirolet® Composting Toilet System:

info@envirolet.ca

 Canada 1-800-387-5245

leaky front of Envirolet toilet