Frugal Flushing Habits
bluevelv
Here's a money-saving idea I haven't heard discussed here. And its
worked for our family.
A toilet consumes somewhere between 1.6 gallon and 2.5 gallon per
flush, depending on make and model. Depending on where you live, this
can cost close to a penny a flush. And we all know that those pennies
can add up.
In our household, the rule is that no one is allowed to flush for
urination alone. In addition, children and adults under 100 pounds
are not allowed to flush after bowel movements. The latter are
generally small, and can easily be handled simultaneously at a later
time along with a second movement from a larger adult. Even larger
adults do not flush if their movement happens to be unusually small.
This has worked out well for us. We went from 11,000 gallons per
month to about 8,500 gallons per month.
About $25/mo savings.
bluevelv
Me
"bluevelv" <blue...@nospam.dimensional.com> wrote in message
news:3a038da4....@news.dimensional.com...
I guess you probably don't get many visitors at home either. By the
way, if you want to pursue this type of savings to the next level, why
not save more money on water by having your household members
only wash their hands if they poop, but not if they only piss? You would
save on the cost of soap and gain increased water savings that way.
Don't worry about fostering disease, that's just not as important as
saving a few bucks a year on your water bill.
Bill Bonde
Rita wrote:
> Troll alert -- but this time an imaginative, if scatalogical,
> troll.
>
It's a gross troll. If water is so damn important, buy a composting
toilet. Duh.
Anthony Matonak
...
> In our household, the rule is that no one is allowed to flush for
> urination alone. In addition, children and adults under 100 pounds
> are not allowed to flush after bowel movements. The latter are
> generally small, and can easily be handled simultaneously at a later
> time along with a second movement from a larger adult. Even larger
> adults do not flush if their movement happens to be unusually small.
>
> This has worked out well for us. We went from 11,000 gallons per
> month to about 8,500 gallons per month.
Ok, I know it's a troll, and I shouldn't reply, but... (where are them
asbestos boxers when you need them?)
Of course, you could save water just by not watering the lawn and by not
filling the pool, washing the car, and such things. :)
Let's see, 8500 gallons in 30 days is 283.3 gallons a day from 11000
gallons in 30 days at 366.6 gallons a day, saving you some 83.3 gallons
a day. At 1.5 gallons a flush that is 55.5 flushes a day you are saving.
Hmm, you must have a big family, or several families. Let's say a typical
person needs to use the bathroom every 4 hours on average with time out
for sleeping, this means they go about 4 times a day. 55 flushes at
4 flushes per person means over 13 people, probably twice that since a
person will still need to 'flush' at least once or twice a day.
Let's use the number 13 as the people living in this household. Say each
flushes once a day, that's a good 19.5 gallons right there. That leaves
264 gallons used for everything else, or (264/13) 20 gallons a day per
person. Say a gallon for drinking and cooking, another gallon for washing
hands and the like, another couple of gallons for dishes, clothes, and
some 10+ gal for showers... I suppose this is possible.
You could reduce your water use much more of course. Make it a rule that
no one is to bathe alone. One tub of water should be able to wash the
entire family, though I wouldn't want to be the last guy in that tub.
You could build yourself a composting toilet. These don't use water at
all since they don't flush. Certainly 5 gallon showers are possible, as
are sponge baths, or the custom of bathing once a week weather you need
to or not. Staber washing machines use very much less water than most
others so this could save some too.
Hmm... no flushing (0 gallons), 5 gallon showers (use 5 gallon bucket
as source for shower water), 1 gal drinking and cooking, another 4 for
misc. washing hands/clothes/dishes and the like, say 10 gallons a day
per person. For a family of 13 this would be 130 gallons a day or 3900
gallons a month. This would be less than half your 'saved' 8500 gallons
a month. Of course, if you have 26 people living in your house instead
of just 13 then you are already down to this level of use and are
probably breaking any number of housing and health laws in the process.
If that is the case I'll congratulate you on your ability to avoid both
the law and plagues.
What does water cost you? I did a quick lookup at the Los Angeles DWP
web site and it runs from .257 cents a gallon at the cheapest rates up
to .4 cents a gallon for the expensive rates. Rates are based on where
you live, how hot it is, season of year, how much you use, phase of the
moon, that kind of stuff. Of course sewer charges add another .3 cents a
gallon to the cost of your water so the total can range from .557 cents
a gallon up to .7 cents a gallon. (Gosh, makes you wonder how they can
sell bottled water at $1.00 a gallon. Then again, bottled water usually
won't be poisoned.)
8500 gallons a month would cost some $47.34 here in Los Angeles. Saving
2500 gallons would save some $13.93 a month. You could probably save some
$14 a month much easier in any number of other ways that don't require
13 to 26 people living under the same roof to smell each other more
strongly, shower with each other, or share the same flushes. Cutting down
on the meat in your diet is one way. Eliminating fast food is another.
Giving up smoking, drinking, or the crack pipe certainly would help.
Why, the money saved by skipping just ONE visit to a hooker could pay
for several months worth of water use.
Frugality is often a question of skimping in one area so as to have the
money to spend on luxuries in another. Myself, I'm rather fond of running
water (both hot and cold).
Anthony
adow...@webtv.net
sandwhich bag as contraceptive thread. Oh no, not again!!
Annie
kvi...@my-deja.com
blue...@nospam.dimensional.com wrote:
>
> Here's a money-saving idea I haven't heard discussed here. And its
> worked for our family.
>
Not necessariliy a troll, but perhaps a few more details and
descriptors than we all needed or wanted.
There is a school of though that thinks future wars will be fought over
water rights--like all natural resources, we should use economical
practices whenever possible. (side note-For an intersting
water/conflict novel 'The Fifth Sacred thing' by Starhawk is excellent)
When I was younger, we had a house rule at the summer place
(destriolets and then septic system) "In this land of Sun and Fun, we
never flush for number 1" (--except for when company's coming...).
We also reduced the volume of the tank by putting 1-3 bricks in the
tank to act as filler...
Karen
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
C. Jones
Oh, Annie - what a good memory! I recognized the name, too, and woud
have posted about what you said if I hadn't seen yours first.
I have to say, this person is amusing in a gross, fifth grade kind of
way. How many serious responses do you think Blue's post will elicit?
Carolyn
suzn
> > >worked for our family.
Why not just remove your toilet and aim for the hole in the floor where the
toilet use to be.....no more flushing....no more toilet cleaning.....
Jean P Nance
for overnight. Our water is softened, but even so, we began to get lime
(or something) deposits and gave up the practice.
I was once a visitor at a relative's summer cabin. We were told that
there was a water shortage, flush only for b.m.s, I was having a period,
and there were 5 teenagers in the party, one a 13 year old nephew of my
husband. Rather than argue, I just talked my husband into leaving after
supper and driving to a motel. Well, this was a low point in family
relationsjhips for sure. But try explaining the situation to a very
prissy sister-iin-law in the presence of her kids and ours.
I think the original messages was a troll, but some people do try to
save water that way, although not to the ridiculous extent described.
Polar
wrote:
>
>> > On Sat, 04 Nov 2000 04:28:11 GMT, blue...@nospam.dimensional.com
>> > (bluevelv) wrote:
>> > >Here's a money-saving idea I haven't heard discussed here. And its
>> > >worked for our family.
>
>Why not just remove your toilet and aim for the hole in the floor where the
>toilet use to be.....no more flushing....no more toilet cleaning.....
Uh, about that "aiming"...I just finished a book by
Jeff Greenwald called "The Size of the World". He is a writer
who got a book deal to go around the world w/o leaving the ground --
meaning, in practice, no planes, only ground trans. and boats.
A little self-indulgent, and far too many figures of speech,
but overall entertaining.
Somewhere he encounters squat toilets, befouled w/excrement,
and makes an experiment which shows him that the ideal
placement is 6" forward of where he estimated, and where --
apparently -- many other users miscalculated.
No, no, no thanks required; glad to offer a public service...<g>
--
Polar
Lou Pogoda
roof of the Vatican. Sometimes it's not a question of if, but where.
Rita wrote in message <3v090tcmnnhd8so97...@4ax.com>...
>I was quite amazed, in Paris of all places, to find a squat
>toilet in a cafe where I was having a coffee and had asked
>to use the rest room. It was clean enough, but decided it
>was not for me. I was a big annoyed since I had stopped for
>the coffee with the express purpose of making a restroom
>stop.
Polar
>On Sat, 04 Nov 2000 21:51:17 GMT, Rita <rjkin...@earthlink.net>
>wrote:
>
>>I was quite amazed, in Paris of all places, to find a squat
>>toilet in a cafe where I was having a coffee and had asked
>>to use the rest room. It was clean enough, but decided it
>>was not for me. I was a big annoyed since I had stopped for
>>the coffee with the express purpose of making a restroom
>>stop.
>
>What is a squat toilet? Does it flush?
Depends what country you're in.
I suspect the ones in Paris do flush. The ones in Turkey
certainly did! But there are probably 3rd world countries
where it's just a pit.
A squat toilet has two places where you put your feet,
with your butt suspended over the hole.
I (female) wear overalls due to a back problem,
and learned the hard way to make sure the straps
don't, uh, you know...
--
Polar
Polar
wrote:
>
>
>Rita wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, 04 Nov 2000 04:28:11 GMT, blue...@nospam.dimensional.com
>> (bluevelv) wrote:
[...]
>>
>It's a gross troll. If water is so damn important, buy a composting
>toilet. Duh.
Achtung! There are composting toilets and composting toilets.
Some years ago I stayed in a hostel in Maine that was straight out of
the 60's. Women in granny gowns, babies all over the place, big pots
of vegetarian yummies on the stove, nice, friendly folks.
The indoor facility was a Clevis toilet. You could do #2, but not #1.
Somehow that would foul up -- pun intended -- the process
of decomposing and drying out the #2, which eventually would
be spread over their vegetable garden.
Rapid mental (and physical) reprogramming was required
of this visitor!
--
Polar
Hilary too
news:43a90tofidu4m4u7r...@4ax.com...
| On Sat, 04 Nov 2000 21:51:17 GMT, Rita <rjkin...@earthlink.net>
| wrote:
|
| >I was quite amazed, in Paris of all places, to find a squat
| >toilet in a cafe where I was having a coffee and had asked
| >to use the rest room. It was clean enough, but decided it
| >was not for me. I was a big annoyed since I had stopped for
| >the coffee with the express purpose of making a restroom
| >stop.
|
| What is a squat toilet? Does it flush?
It is a porcelain toilet, found primarily in women's restrooms. I did not
know they existed outside of the Far East but I encountered them quite often
in Korea. It is about 18" long (IIRC) and about 6" wide and it is on the
floor. It has an 8" catch on the front, rather reminiscent of a
potty-training seat guard. You just, um, squat over it. They really aren't
that bad to use (and when you gotta, you just gotta). It does flush, just to
rinse a little. Common etiquette in public places was that you don't use
them for BMs, you use a "real" toilet. Squat toilets are by far more
water-efficient than a standard flush toilet, requiring probably between 1
and 2 gallons to flush, I think. At least it certainly looks like a whole
lot less water than a standard toilet. In Korea though, where US soldiers
spent time (restaurants, bars, etc.) there were Western toilets as well, in
stalls. The squat toilets were outside the stalls. Most Westerners regard
them as barbaric until they've had a drink or three.
--
Hilary too
Bill Bonde
suzn wrote:
>
> > > On Sat, 04 Nov 2000 04:28:11 GMT, blue...@nospam.dimensional.com
> > > (bluevelv) wrote:
> > > >Here's a money-saving idea I haven't heard discussed here. And its
> > > >worked for our family.
>
> Why not just remove your toilet and aim for the hole in the floor where the
> toilet use to be.....no more flushing....no more toilet cleaning.....
>
Sell the house. Live in a ditch in an old refrigerator box covering
yourself with 'hoover blankets'. Your cost to 'live' could approach
zero.
Bill Bonde
Most threads in many groups are started by trolls. Most people just
ignore the troll part and go on with whatever was actually interesting
in the post.
Bill Bonde
"Ken H." wrote:
>
> I would never have thought of something like that and I have to admit
> that I don't think such a military-style mandates is appropriate
> against either parents or children just to save from $3 to $5 each
> month. That said, at night we when we use the toilet, we don't flush
> because of the noise which will wake the sleeping parent. It takes a
> bomb to wake kids. It's not logical to me not to flush to save about
> a penny or less per flush.
>
Was it logical to use a sandwich bag for birth control?
Noach
news:5u770t885q6cuhlq4...@4ax.com...
> Troll alert -- but this time an imaginative, if scatalogical,
> troll.
This is the same guy who posted the suggestion to save on condoms by using
sandwitch bags.
--
Al Gore walked all over the grave of his dead sister at the last Democrat
convention. He gave a melodramatic speech about how evil tobacco is,
invoking his sister who died from lung cancer. There was just one problem:
Gore continued to grow and profit from tobacco _after_ his
sister had died and even bragged about it while campaigining in tobacco
states.
Get rebates for shopping at many online stores:
http://www.ebates.com/index.jsp?referrer=ocean...@mybizrate.com
Nick Pine
>>What is a squat toilet? Does it flush?
>It is a hole in the floor. Sometimes with footprints
>marked out on each side of the hole to indicate
>where you put your feet.
The French ilk tend to have a square shallow basin like a stall shower,
covered with small tilework, and the footprints are raised up 2" or so.
When you are done, you pull on a chain to flush the basin with water.
Nick
adow...@webtv.net
are newspaper. LOL Thanks, Bill. Hadn't heard that term in ages.
Annie
Tock
suzn wrote in message ...
>> > >worked for our family.
>
>toilet use to be.....no more flushing....no more toilet cleaning.....
I read a book by some guy who went on a one-year school teaching gig in
Japan, and he wrote that the average house over there doesn't have a flush
commode. Instead they squat over a hole in the floor (for real!), even in
apartments. Don't recall how they dealt with clogs in the plumbing,
though. Yuck . . .
--Tock
Anthony Matonak
Thanks for clearing that up Annie, I had these weird mental flashes of
people sleeping inside vacuum cleaners or something. :)
I wonder if there is a crafts project calling out here. I've read a
couple of suggestions of using newspaper as a form of insulation and
for that matter the cellulose insulation people blow into their
attics and inside their walls is essentially made from newspaper.
I imagine the paper itself isn't strong enough to last for much more
than a few uses but that could probably be overcome by enclosing it
inside something more durable. I know grocery shopping bags are about
as plentiful as old newspapers and people have been crocheting them
into throw rugs and welcome mats. Perhaps a number of plastic shopping
bags could be torn into strips, the strips twisted into 'strings' and
crocheted into large blanket sized pieces of material. Use two of these
bag blankets with newspaper layered between, and then the sides stitched
together similar to a quilt.
Considering the labor involved it would probably be cheaper to just
buy a blanket somewhere.
Anthony
Bev
>> are newspaper.
>Thanks for clearing that up Annie, I had these weird mental flashes of
>people sleeping inside vacuum cleaners or something. :)
Uh, I thought they were blankets made of lint from dryers and vacuum cleaners
;)
Bev :)
Remove the "SpamFree" for email, please.
Bill Bonde
Tock wrote:
>
> suzn wrote in message ...
> >
> >> > On Sat, 04 Nov 2000 04:28:11 GMT, blue...@nospam.dimensional.com
> >> > (bluevelv) wrote:
> >> > >Here's a money-saving idea I haven't heard discussed here. And its
> >> > >worked for our family.
> >
> >Why not just remove your toilet and aim for the hole in the floor where the
> >toilet use to be.....no more flushing....no more toilet cleaning.....
>
> I read a book by some guy who went on a one-year school teaching gig in
> Japan, and he wrote that the average house over there doesn't have a flush
> commode. Instead they squat over a hole in the floor (for real!), even in
> apartments.
>
So the crap just lands on the people the floor below? I'm getting the
top level apartment if I ever visit Japan.
Dennis
(bluevelv) wrote:
>In our household, the rule is that no one is allowed to flush for
>urination alone. In addition, children and adults under 100 pounds
>are not allowed to flush after bowel movements. The latter are
>generally small, and can easily be handled simultaneously at a later
>time along with a second movement from a larger adult. Even larger
>adults do not flush if their movement happens to be unusually small.
Judging from your postings, I bet you get to flush twice.
Dennis (evil)
--
"There is a fine line between participation and mockery" - Wally
Noach
news:3a06ff57....@news.easystreet.com...
> Judging from your postings, I bet you get to flush twice.
:o)
--
"In the vast majority of cases, the procedure [partial-birth abortion] is
performed on a healthy
mother with a healthy fetus that is 20 weeks or more along. The
abortion-rights folks know it, the anti-abortion folks know it, and so,
probably, does everyone else."
-Ron Fitzsimmons Executive Director for the National Coalition of Abortion
Providers
The New York Times, February 26, 1997
Al Gore supports this procedure. George W. Bush does not.
george kirkpatrick
to the task at hand. We do this by weighing down the "flap" so that it
stays up only as long as you hold the handle down. Great if something
goes wrong as the bowl
cannot overflow.
signed: a control freak.
C. Jones
<add...@reply-to.is.accurate> wrote:
(Noach's post was sig only, and I have chosen to leave it where it
belongs.)a
How interesting! By including your political and anti-abortion views
in your sig, you really are fooling yourself. You are becoming quite
tiresome, Noach.
Bye bye,
Carolyn
Noach
news:dche0to9tvjlqdgtk...@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 6 Nov 2000 18:00:21 -0500, "Noach"
> <add...@reply-to.is.accurate> wrote:
>
> (Noach's post was sig only,
No, it wasn't. I smiled at Dennis's witty reply to 'bluevelv'.
> How interesting! By including your political and anti-abortion views
> in your sig,
1. Partial-birth infanticide is a separate issue from abortion in general.
Even many who are pro-choice oppose this barbaric, heinous procedure.
2. Many people have controversial and political sigs. If it was one that
you agreed with, I doubt that you would complain.
> you really are fooling yourself.
You are the one who has been fooled by the radical abortionist
propagandists.
Hilary
news:8u7j79$fa4$1...@nntp9.atl.mindspring.net...
(To C. Jones)
| 2. Many people have controversial and political sigs. If it was one that
| you agreed with, I doubt that you would complain.
Sadly, this is true. I even catch myself wanting to respond to political
*stuff* like this because I agree with it, while I rail "why can't they keep
this crap out of here??" about politics I disagree with.
Lots of people do it. It's ok. We're just people in a newsgroup ;)
--
Hilary
"I hear and I forget. I see and
I remember. I do and I understand."
-- Confucious
freest...@my-deja.com
geo...@humboldt1spam.com (george kirkpatrick) wrote:
> We save water by fixing the flush to last a
> time directly proportional to the task at hand.
> We do this by weighing down the "flap" so that it
> stays up only as long as you hold the handle down.
In some countries, e.g. New Zealand (and probably also Australia), some
residential toilets (I think generally newer ones) don't have a
swinging lever-type flush. Instead, they have two buttons on the top,
one that does a full flush, and the other that does a half-flush (i.e.
only half the amount of water flows down to he bowl.) The buttons
aren't electric or anything - I think they just push down rods inside
the tank.
But the original non-flushing poster (if they are telling the truth)
seems to be getting to the "point of diminishing returns." I mean, I
think the whole purpose of frugality is to increase efficiency and set
better priorities ("better" as defined by each individual) for a net
improvement in one's living-conditions/way-of-life. Unless it's a total
financial desperation thing, I wonder what they are doing with that
extra $25 per month that supposedly compensates for the negatives
introduced by their (non-)flushing policy?
--
Want Cool Freebies?
http://www.freestuffbox.com/
Look Inside The Free Stuff Box!
C. Jones
<hil...@camalott.comREMOVE> wrote:
>"Noach" <add...@reply-to.is.accurate> wrote in message
>news:8u7j79$fa4$1...@nntp9.atl.mindspring.net...
>(To C. Jones)
>| 2. Many people have controversial and political sigs. If it was one that
>| you agreed with, I doubt that you would complain.
>
>Sadly, this is true. I even catch myself wanting to respond to political
>*stuff* like this because I agree with it, while I rail "why can't they keep
>this crap out of here??" about politics I disagree with.
>
>Lots of people do it. It's ok. We're just people in a newsgroup ;)
Traditionally, a sig is limited to four lines. There are sigs and
there are sigs. Generally, I don't pay much attention one way or
another. And I am not bothered by folks who have political ideas that
are counter to mine. That's what we are about in the US. Within the
four lines - I don't care what people write. But a blatant disregard
of "sig criteria" in order to continue posting on topics that a number
of people have repeatedly requested be taken to other NGs is a bit
much.
Carolyn
Amy Bridger
in a desperate attempt to summon help:
>In some countries, e.g. New Zealand (and probably also Australia), some
>residential toilets (I think generally newer ones) don't have a
>swinging lever-type flush. Instead, they have two buttons on the top,
>one that does a full flush, and the other that does a half-flush (i.e.
>only half the amount of water flows down to he bowl.) The buttons
>aren't electric or anything - I think they just push down rods inside
>the tank.
Yup those are the most common type of toilet in Australia. Using the
half-flush works for everything - I never ever use the full flush
button.
I'm not sure how they work, never actually looked into a toilet!
--
Amy Bridger (a...@full-moon.com)
I am in AUSTRALIA.
"A werewolf in love."
- Oz, Phases, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Hilary
|
| Traditionally, a sig is limited to four lines. There are sigs and
| there are sigs. Generally, I don't pay much attention one way or
| another. And I am not bothered by folks who have political ideas that
| are counter to mine. That's what we are about in the US. Within the
| four lines - I don't care what people write. But a blatant disregard
| of "sig criteria" in order to continue posting on topics that a number
| of people have repeatedly requested be taken to other NGs is a bit
| much.
|
| Carolyn
I agree with your point. However, it's not something that bugs me. Off
topics don't even really bug me. Now, starting a whole thread to be ugly or
insulting about politics (or anything) bugs me. But I don't really do flame
wars too much... In other newsgroups, I have been known to, when I see logic
that's just too unreasonable to swallow, or when the poster has countered
themselves too much for me to accept any part of their argument. But
generally, that doesn't seem to happen much here. What I see here is a smart
newsgroup full of sharp, involved people, most of whom have intelligent
opinions (that is, they can say *why* they would vote a certain way, rather
than commenting on the candidate's smile). After some of the groups I've
been in, I appreciate reasonable intelligence, no matter how strident, more
than anything else.
However, I also see the point of the readers in other countries, who could
of course care less about our political views. So I will try to curb my own
off-topic and/or political stuff ;)
ObFrugal-- For those with kids, hand-me-downs can be recycled even for the
opposite sex. Simply cover any gender-specific logos or patches with a patch
for the other child (in the notions department just about anywhere). If the
color doesn't mesh with the child's sex or taste, almost anything can be
dyed a darker color, or you can treat the clothes with color remover and
then dye.
--
Hilary, who has made a *lot* of girls' shorts, pants and coveralls work for
the boy by dying, covering, trimming and hemming.
Ken
mens bathrooms have in them before not flushing all the time.
If you realy want to save more water try getting one of thoes waterless
ones that will digest the stuff.
Barney Rubble
That's an open air skylight directly over the pontiff's favorite desk!
Hehe
"Lou Pogoda" <lpo...@home.nospam.com> wrote:
>And I was gratified beyond telling to find **any** kind of toilet on the
>roof of the Vatican. Sometimes it's not a question of if, but where.
>
>Rita wrote in message <3v090tcmnnhd8so97...@4ax.com>...