Toilet technologies

As we begin our journey through the wonderland of environmentally-friendly toilets, let's start by cataloging the main technologies available.

Vacuum toilets use little or no water. You may have used them on aircraft or on ships. Perhaps a bit overkill for an island summer home, but is most like the toilet you have at home.

Composting toilets take waste and collect it for decomposition. There many ways to collect, and many ways to decompose. Some methods are more attractive than others, to put it mildly.

Incinerating toilets burn waste in a very high-temperature process. Good news: all that icky stuff is quickly and permanently gone. Bad news: giant, expensive, power-hungry combustion chamber right between your legs.

More detailed posts on each type- complete with photos!- to follow.

Sun-Mar composting toilets

Since toilets seem to be the most popular subject on this blog, I've found another interesting design for our dear readers.

Sun-Mar make a range of composting toilets which, to me, are a bit of a hybrid between a composting and septic toilet. They make a self-contained unit, which is something like the tried and trusted Separett. It's quite a bit more advanced, however, with evaporators and dryers to speed and civilize the composting process.

They also provide a central system, where one or more toilets is connected to a tank beneath the house. Composting then takes place away from the bathroom, making the process even cleaner and quieter.

These units can run with and without water, and even with or without electricity. It's quite a wide range of composting toilet products. I am impressed!

Japanese toilets

I'm back safely from Tokyo, and since toilets are a popular topic on this blog, I thought I'd comment on the hi-tech toilets common there.

The attached photo is from the men's room in a karaoke bar I visited last night. You'll notice the wiring and motor apparatus on the left of the lid. There is also a control panel on the right, with a whole number of buttons and switches, all in Japanese of course.

These toilets commonly have heated seats, automated seat and lid operation, little robot arms with warmed water and air for washing those sensitive parts, scent dispensers, and sound generators to either mask the noise of the user's functions, or to soothe the user for a more successful result. I'm not exaggerating; see here for a summary of Japanese toilet tricks.

I thought the hardest thing I had to do last evening was to hit the high notes in ABC's "The Look of Love" in front of a dozen colleagues, but no, I had to figure out how to flush—and only flush— this toilet at 1AM, especially after the ingestion of a number of alcoholic drinks. Thankfully, I managed it with no problems, which I can't say for my rendition later that night of The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back".

Toilets, once again

I read recently of a photographic exhibition of toilets around the world. It was created by the French artist and environmental campaigner, François Cuel.

His key quote: "The exhibition is meant to make people smile but also to invite them to think. Access to proper toilets, and more generally to water, is a privilege denied to many people."

I've touched on this theme before. Dealing with the issues of waste and sanitation at our stuga has shown me how much we take our flush toilets for granted.

The Independent has an article on the exhibition, along with a few photographs, here. It's worth a look.

Toilets, Episode 1

A toilet is a petty simple device. It simply collects waste and sends it along for processing, in a hygienic and efficient way. We all take toilets for granted (those of us in the first world, at least).

But when you're in a situation where you have to provide for your own waste, then you don't take waste handling for granted at all.

On Aspö, most homes have some sort of composting toilet system. Liquid waste is drained away from the home into the earth, and solid waste is kept and composted. A bit of mulch, a few microbes, a bit of stirring, careful ventilation, and solid waste becomes harmless over time. However, new rules regarding composting are about to come into force. This composting regime will take more steps and more time before solid waste can be disposed of.

Spending extra time and work on handling solid waste isn't my cup of tea. So I decided to concentrate on the non-composting toilets at the expo.

Toilets

Back in the olden days, before I bought the Cinderella for our house, I posted quite a lot about various types of toilets. Strangely, those posts were among my most popular.

I have found a website that far surpasses me in this field, however. A young man has filmed literally hundreds of toilets of all ages and styles, going about their business, so to speak.

He has a You Tube channel of his work. It's strangely compelling.

Pee Power

A recent article in the Economist touched on one of this blog's favorite subjects: toilets.

Well, not toilets, exactly, but rather the question of what might be done with the 6.4 trillion liters of urine produced every year. (I think a good portion of that comes at halftime of English football matches, but I digress).

Researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a simple fuel cell utilizing microbes to turn urine into electricity. Besides being a (very) renewable energy source, the broader economic impacts might help drive construction of more toilet facilities.

More people in the developing world have access to a cell phone than a toilet. A business could well profit from a facility allowing a user to safely dispose of waste, and boost their phone's charge at the same time. Nothing like the profit motive to get those toilets built!

Back from Sweden

Returned last night from an eventful whirlwind visit. Rutger and I did quite a lot of work on the land, what with tree-felling and plot-measuring, and we met our new neighbors (by borrowing first-aid supplies from them!) We also got to see Janne which is always a treat.

The next day, I visited the home expo and saw lots of fascinating things, especially many different types of toilets. I also met Stefan and Johan (whom you might recall from previous posts).

Stay tuned over upcoming days with lots of posts, especially about toilets. Lots of info about toilets.

World Toilet Day

Today is World Toilet Day, as set by the United Nations.

I realize all my postings about toilets are half in jest, but the issue of sanitation is serious business. Over two billion people don't have access to any kind of toilet facility at all. 

WaterAid, a worldwide charity active in both the UK and Sweden, is working to raise awareness (and money) for toilet construction in the third world. As they say, "having access to water and toilets transforms people’s life chances, leading to better health, education and economic opportunities." Every dollar (or pound, or kronor) spent to improve access to sanitation and water provides 4 timereturns in economic and social benefits.

I am choosy about the charities I support, but there's no question I'll be donating on World Toilet Day, and I hope my readers, do, too.

Toilets on Mt. Everest

I read in the news about plans to provide toilets at the Mt. Everest base camp. Apparently the whole mountain has become a dumping ground, with climbers leaving behind all sorts of discarded equipment, not to mention their waste!

Instead of just cleaning up, the plan is to introduce waste management to the mountain. That is the right way to go. As any camper (or island resident) can tell you, reducing the amount of extraneous stuff before you start is most efficient. In fact, that concept has coined a new word: precycling.

When we bring stuff out to Aspö, we remove as much packaging from the items as we can. It is amazing how a few shopping bags full of stuff can compact way down with a bit of judicious unwrapping. That allows us to carry more in, and carry less out. A win all around.

A thousand posts!

This is a momentous occasion: my 1000th post. From a humble introduction in August 2007, my blog has exploded over the past half-decade into the internet's go-to source for information on building kit homes, Swedish archipelago life, the Eurovision song contest, and incinerating toilets. Especially incinerating toilets. Google tells me Cinderella is the most commonly-visited subject here by a wide margin. (Google also reveals my blog has been viewed by 60,000 people! Wow!)

I have made 4 introductory posts; I suppose I can add to the canon with a fifth. Sooz, Ollie, and I are happily back into the swing of Texas life. People ask us if we miss living in the UK, and we truthfully answer "yes", but that doesn't mean we are unhappy here; it's not a binary choice. Let's face it, life in the USA is pretty easy and we enjoy that ease. Grant is still in college in North Carolina, a junior now, and doing well at school, both academically and socially. Ollie is also doing fine, a bit slower of course, but since the dark days of his back surgery, every day that he is still happy and healthy with us is a joy.

We're still adjusting to being 5000 miles away from our little stuga. But we've settled into a pattern of being there three times a year- all the seasons except winter! Given the Texas heat, Sooz plans to be away longer in July/August, and I will join her, for two weeks if I can. A one week visit is OK, but the jetlag makes a 7-day visit less desirable.

It's a good thing the house is done. Maintaining it and bringing small things out is do-able from so far away. I sure couldn't have built it from the other side of the world! Fortunately, we have great neighbors in Olle and Annika who keep an eye on our home for us, which is a great relief.

The internet also makes it a lot easier to keep in touch. Olle and Annika send us photos when they're on Aspö. I can see the hourly weather and the Systembolaget specials on my iPhone, as well as the local news, and Rutger is always a FaceTime call away for advice!

It's around this time of year that I really pine for Aspö. The weather is starting to get nice; March here reminds me of June there. So I start itching to go. But we will be there soon enough for our spring visit. And longer-term, I will admit the thought of retirement is starting to creep around the borders of my thinking. Sooz and I know we couldn't live there year-round, but the thought of an April-October residence is appealing. And all that time would lend itself to a great deal of blogging!

Who knows, my next thousand posts may come much more quickly.

Cinderella

I took a look at the blog's readership stats, and it's clear that Cinderella is the most popular subject here by a huge margin. In fact, toilets in general are the biggest source of new readers.

Given the new-found focus, I thought I'd recap our recent trials and tribulations with our own Cinderella toilet.

The cooling fan is set to turn on as soon as the lid is lifted. The fan is very important, given the heat generated by the combustion process. Without proper cooling and ventilation, it could be quite dangerous. That's one of the advantages of the Cinderella over other incinerating models; its sensor and fail-safe system is quite sophisticated.

Sooz found that the fan didn't come on when we turned it on, and a quick review of the manual indicated a fan failure. A call to Johan, the Cinderella expert I first met 5 years ago, confirmed it. Johan arranged for a new fan to be sent out along with instructions (in Swedish) and a little repair kit.

There was a bit of confusion in which the fan was sent to Stavsnäs instead of direct to us, but Sooz retrieved it and I was able to indeed replace the fan simply.

I was a bit miffed that the fan failed. After all, our Cinderella doesn't get continuous usage, and I keep the bathroom warm when we are away so it isn't subject to below-freezing temperatures. Then again I suppose not using it on a regular basis might be bad, too.

Johan softened the blow by not charging me for the fan, even though the warranty is only two years. He's a good guy (and so is everyone else I met in the company), plus he knows I am an influential blogger on the subject of incinerating toilets!

All's well that ends well, and our Cinderella is safely shut down until next year.

Infrastructure

There are a number of things to deal with when building a home on an island. The things that make island living so nice-- the remoteness, the unspoiled landscape, the lack of mechanisation, the sense of community-- also make the act of building a bit more complicated.

Aspö has electricity and phone service, and fresh water within easy drilling. It has regular boat and mail service, and trash is picked up in the summers. There's even a local grocery who will deliver to your dock!

The one thing it doesn't have is any type of sewage system. This means all toilets have to be self-contained. The good news is there are many types of composting toilets to choose from. The bad news is that there are many types, and everyone I've spoken to has their own favourite!

Stay tuned for a bit more information in coming posts about the pros and cons of various toilet technologies. I bet you can't wait...

The ace in the hole

If you discount comet strikes and sudden global warming, then the worst-case scenario for us is that the plumbing isn't done when we arrive. That would mean no water inside the house, no showers, no clothes washing. We'd have to use the hose from our well to manage water by bucketfuls.

Our ace in the hole is the Cinderella. It's there, it runs on electricity that's already installed, and all it needs is to have its exhaust pipe put up. So there's no reason the toilet shouldn't be working. (For those interested, an English user guide is here.)

Bottom line: as long we have the toilet, we can live with outside water. Many houses on the archipelago don't have inside water (or inside toilets, for that matter). So we can handle the worst-case scenario. I still think we won't have to, but it's good to be prepared.

Doors

The Hus Expo had two main halls, essentially one for interior goods, and one for exterior and building services. We'll get to the indoor exhibits (that is, toilets) in another post or three.

Among the exterior displays, I found a surprisingly interesting topic: doors.

To the left are a few photos I took at the expo. All of the doors I saw were from companies in Norrland, which is essentially the whole northern half of the country. Some of the largest forests in Europe still cover Norrland, so it's not surprising this region has a long-standing timber and carpentry tradition.

There were a few companies which really stood out with interesting door designs. Allmoge had a big product line, Diplomat seemed most traditional, Snickarper had lots of big-name designers, and Polardörren was the coolest (and with a good English website too).

We may stick with the standard door, because light already comes into the house from the big windows on the door side. On the other hand, it might be fun to have a colorful door with a funky window!!

A toilet theme park

I posted a bit more than 5 years ago about a toilet-awareness organization in in South Korea which built a toilet-shaped house.

Sadly, Sim Jae-duck, the builder of the house and the founder of the WTA, has passed away in the interim. However, his house has become a Restroom Cultural Park, with toilets from around the world available for visitors.

Not sure if there's a Cinderella there. There should be!

Toilets, Episode 2

This is the CTS-2000. It is a vacuum toilet. Waste is vacuumed away with a little water, much like a flush toilet at home, and sent through a tube for processing. One advantage is that the tube can be 100 feet long, so the processing can be done far away from you, which is an advantage.

In this case, the waste-handling process is incineration. The blue box in this picture is a propane-powered combustion unit.

It's an interesting device, but it's overkill for a little summer house. The cost is high; 55,000 kronor! And then there's the matter of a big 'ol propane-powered poop processor just outside your home.

Blog visitors

I don't have an agenda for keeping this blog other than as a bit of entertainment for myself and my friends and family. I have had a few charming people find my blog and leave comments, but I always thought it was seen by a very small group.

Just for fun today, I looked at the analytical information on the blog, and I have to say I was amazed by the numbers. In just the past 6 weeks, there have been 1,769 visitors, and 789 of them have been new viewers. Who knew?

A dizzying array of information is available about these visitors. As you might expect, most are from the US, UK, or Sweden. However, readers from 50 other countries took a look these past weeks. I appear to have a regular reader in Santiago, so hola, whomever you are. I'd love to visit your country some day.

Reaching back to this blog's beginning, the single most popular subject has been the Cinderella toilet. It looks like people searching (in English) for information on incinerating toilets find my blog from the main Google search page. The second most popular search term is "Marcia Rutger", which I find intriguing.

There are some disappointing stats, however. Most new visitors spend less than a minute on the site, so I don't appear to be enrapturing my audience. And 56% of my visitors use Windows on their computer, which is 56% too many in my opinion. But there are 9 iPad users who've stopped by, so a shout-out to all of you!

What we did well

I suppose as a companion piece, I should write about the good things, too. That list is more enjoyable:

• The bathroom, for starters. It really turned out superbly. The size of the room, our choice of tiles and colours, Tommy and Anders' workmanship, and especially the Queen of toilets, Cinderella herself, all make our bathroom the envy of many. I wouldn't be exaggerating to say it's nicer than the bathroom in our home in London!
• I also think we sited the house ideally. It perches nicely on the rock, and we have privacy with a nice view off both of our decks. I also added a meter to the overall length of the house in the initial specification, and that seems to provide just enough extra room inside.
• The kitchen is just big enough, and the extra space afforded by the IKEA cabinets, not to mention the built-in garderobes, is huge. We really aren't suffering for storage at all, even in a small house.
• Grant's bunk beds also are great. They make good use of his high ceilings and in a way, it's two rooms in one, the upper and the lower. He and his friends were "upstairs" watching videos late into most nights. (And sleeping late into most days, but I digress...)
  
• The Sky chair, especially hanging right over the edge as we've installed it, is a very popular place to sit. We're already thinking of getting another.

Fundamentally, though, to have actually done it, to have gone from nothing two years ago, to our own nice cozy little house, just the way we like it, well, I think that's pretty cool. As Warren Oates said it, "Those satisfactions are permanent."

Insulation, Pt. 2

The wool insulation people (from my earlier post) responded to my email very quickly, and I also inquired to Stefan about its suitability in an X-house. He replied that it was very suitable, and that there was 300mm space available in the floors and ceiling for insulation.

We've been investigating other eco-friendly insulations as well, and there is a diverse marketplace out there, to be sure. Be prepared for more on this subject! Who knows, maybe there'll be as many insulation posts as there have been on toilets.

I plan to talk to the people in Wales soon about details, and I'll report back.