The problem with the flush toilets which 'supposedly' save water is, they don't work that well
In two ways; they don't flush very effectively and therefore they don't save water because most people will flush them twice
Going to totally disagree here, I have never had that problem here with the low flush toilets, they all work nothing is left behind AND you don't splash your backside like with the old British ones. The toilets have a choice of flush half or whole. but they still use much less water than the old style. I do know of one in Holland that is terrible, it has a "viewing" platform for your deposit i.e the waste hole is at the front not the back, that gets terribly dirty as you can imagine .
I do a fairly dirty job (vegetable growing). so work cloths get worn twice as a maximum, the washing machine still isn't turned on for just 2 sets of clothes though, they go into a basket and wait if they are particularly smelly/dirty they get thrown into the utility room with the machine otherwise the baskets live in the bathroom. The same goes for dog towels, the only thing that makes us do emergency washes at 3am is when a cat has decided to pee on the bed... luckily we've been wet knee free for a good 6 months and I hope she has grown out of it!
Mains water usage for me is really (other than the cost) a moot point, the water comes from about 100m away from the bore hole travels in the pipes to me and then goes back into the ground via our septic. (No Danish water is chlorinated or has other chemicals added)
None, no mains here either and absolutely no idea how much we use from the well. We have agricultural water extraction rights that are probably ten times what we actually use and we use a lot for two people. Not so much in the house where we are reasonably frugal, but in the large garden, vegetable garden and swimming pool.
The biggest user of water is the veg garden and in this climate it’s totally uneconomic in so many ways, followed by ornamental garden then swimming pool. Having inherited the original body of water, the latter uses remarkably little, it’s never drained plus summer rain storms mean we are letting out the excess more often than topping up.
The water is free but the cost of the various pumps running on 3 phase means our electricity bills are high, about double what we used to pay in a similar-sized town house with small plunge pool and roof garden. Our central heating runs on LPG which is also extortionate. Like Fire, I’m more concerned about our fossil fuel use and carbon footprint. We would love to install solar PV and an air source heat pump to reduce our consumption of electricity and get rid of the LPG entirely, but we lack the huge capital investment fund to do so.
That's really interesting.
I lose track of Spanish energy taxes - did they not at one time tax solar panels for taking revenue away from the electricity supplier?
I wonder whether a non-Feed-in-Tariff solar system or even not grid connect might be suitable for pumps etc , as pumps for a swimming pool and garden watering perhaps do not need to run at night and would be needed in the summer.
Back in the UK quite a few people are now doing non-FIT solar, as Feed in Tariffs were cut off at the knees.
The problem with the flush toilets which 'supposedly' save water is, they don't work that well
In two ways; they don't flush very effectively and therefore they don't save water because most people will flush them twice
Going to totally disagree here, I have never had that problem here with the low flush toilets, they all work nothing is left behind AND you don't splash your backside like with the old British ones. The toilets have a choice of flush half or whole. but they still use much less water than the old style. I do know of one in Holland that is terrible, it has a "viewing" platform for your deposit i.e the waste hole is at the front not the back, that gets terribly dirty as you can imagine .
I do a fairly dirty job (vegetable growing). so work cloths get worn twice as a maximum, the washing machine still isn't turned on for just 2 sets of clothes though, they go into a basket and wait if they are particularly smelly/dirty they get thrown into the utility room with the machine otherwise the baskets live in the bathroom. The same goes for dog towels, the only thing that makes us do emergency washes at 3am is when a cat has decided to pee on the bed... luckily we've been wet knee free for a good 6 months and I hope she has grown out of it!
Mains water usage for me is really (other than the cost) a moot point, the water comes from about 100m away from the bore hole travels in the pipes to me and then goes back into the ground via our septic. (No Danish water is chlorinated or has other chemicals added)
In my experience in the UK low flush toilets are not particularly reliable, and tend to develop "permanent dribble" leaks into the bowl due to weak seals, which are hard to notice and may require repeated adjustment.
Judging by comments on the thread, we need a relatively low usage flush that will work without attention for a long time. Will see what I can find. One nice thing are that loos are cheap - I did one for a tenant a couple of weeks ago and the loo itself with cistern was only about £50.
In the UK people with private boreholes can get quite a lot of expense because they are not common, and things like testing the water for impurities, and filtering systems can cost.
In my experience in the UK low flush toilets are not particularly reliable, and tend to develop "permanent dribble" leaks into the bowl due to weak seals, which are hard to notice and may require repeated adjustment.
Following this up, I think the only thing I can add (this not being quite my field) is that I wonder whether the older style lever flushes (half push / full push) are more reliable than the pushbutton type as they tend to be siphon loos rather than "washdown".
Replacement mechanims are available from trade suppliers such as Sccrewfix.
F
“Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
One way is to just have a smaller cistern and/or a 'mellow yellow' approach. I had the water company come to check the efficiency of my home systems and they said that my (inherited) cistern was already as small as it could be to be efficient. It is that size because of the tiny space it had to fit into. It works perfectly.
@Ferdinand2000, ah yes the massive disincentive of the infamous Sun Tax! Not only are there no FITs, under this lunatic law introduced by the former conservative government, you not only had to pay tax on every KWh produced by your solar system (equivalent to 50% of the cost of buying electricity from the grid) but donate any excess not used to the electricity company for free. I think there were penalties for off-grid too. It totally killed the market. Fortunately the law was suspended by the current socialist government, but it has done untold, longterm damage to the domestic market - competition is poor and upfront costs are very much higher. Two year’s ago, the quotes and payback period for an undeclared off-grid 3KW system with battery backup were simply staggering! It’s probably time to look again though..
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
@Nollie batteries are still expensive, for the amount of energy they store. It's more cost effective to get a controller gadget called an 'immersun' or there are other makers of a similar thing. It diverts your surplus solar electricity to an immersion and stores the energy as hot water. Obviously you can't run your lights from it as easily, but it does allow you to make more use of the power you generate. Heat pumps are coming down in price here, as are solar panels, and both are becoming more efficient. You'd always be advised to do as much insulation and draught proofing as you can as well, so you have less electricity to buy
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Posts
I lose track of Spanish energy taxes - did they not at one time tax solar panels for taking revenue away from the electricity supplier?
I wonder whether a non-Feed-in-Tariff solar system or even not grid connect might be suitable for pumps etc , as pumps for a swimming pool and garden watering perhaps do not need to run at night and would be needed in the summer.
Back in the UK quite a few people are now doing non-FIT solar, as Feed in Tariffs were cut off at the knees.
There's a thread from a couple of years ago over on Buildhub about the various compromises.
https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/7273-are-solar-panels-worth-it-now/
F
In my experience in the UK low flush toilets are not particularly reliable, and tend to develop "permanent dribble" leaks into the bowl due to weak seals, which are hard to notice and may require repeated adjustment.
Judging by comments on the thread, we need a relatively low usage flush that will work without attention for a long time. Will see what I can find. One nice thing are that loos are cheap - I did one for a tenant a couple of weeks ago and the loo itself with cistern was only about £50.
In the UK people with private boreholes can get quite a lot of expense because they are not common, and things like testing the water for impurities, and filtering systems can cost.
Here is one involved account from a friend with borehole for his new house of part of what he ended up doing for water treatment:
http://www.mayfly.eu/2016/07/part-forty-two-water-treatment/
I dealt with my ancient-cat-peeing-on-beds thing by fitting a child-gate on the stairs.
Replacement mechanims are available from trade suppliers such as Sccrewfix.
F
Heat pumps are coming down in price here, as are solar panels, and both are becoming more efficient. You'd always be advised to do as much insulation and draught proofing as you can as well, so you have less electricity to buy
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”