Indy House: Sink in the toilet

ellen — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:01:00 -0400

No, that's not a photoshop wonder - it's real- a sink in toilet lid from Gaiam. What better way to save space in a small bathroom than to install a 2-in-one fixture?

This toilet, which functions as a toilet AND a sink does just that (you could call it a triple function if you count the built-in soap dish). Yes, a little strange that you have to straddle the toilet to wash your hands but it enables you to use the water from the sink (called greywater) that would have been wasted down the drain but is perfectly acceptable for filling the tank to flush.

So what about using this for the Indy House, a very small (some would call it intimate) green home that we're designing? This might be a good way to reduce the number of fixtures in the limited space and it's a bargain at $89 bucks.

We were going to try to avoid all plumbing in this project and us a Composting Toilet but it might be useful to have a bar sink or slop sink in the house. This is a question for the Owner. We'll let you know.

Let us know if you've had experience with this toilet - its a fairly new product, so we'd love to hear your experiences (and what guests coming to your home have thought!)

Check out previous Indy House posts.

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

How to Flush Your Toilet Using Rain Water

jchait — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:44:55 -0400

If you've ever built a rain barrel, or harvested your own rain water in some way, then you know how easy it is. You can use rain water to water your yard, wash your car, and any number of other uses. What if you could fairly easily use rain water to flush your toilet? Think of all the water you'd save.

Some house do utilize rain water for flushing, as do public buildings, so the possibility is reasonable for you if you own a home. Recently I saw a cool post at Seattlepi.com - at their reader blog section. The post, Flushing Your Toilet with Rainwater, covers a neat resource,a Rain Barrel to Toilet Installation Guide.

The individual who wrote this guide did a good job. It's not hard to follow and there are some great illustrations - both photos and diagrams. It's also a easy project to find parts for; this person snagged everything from the local Home Depot. The guide even discusses extras like backflow protection; a step not required in all states, but it's there, and is simple. Also extra a nice bit about attaching a water meter inside, so you can see just how much you're using. Best of all the entire installation cost around $100. A steal!

Best of all, of course are the environmental impacts. Curiously, the guy who did this is living in Seattle. Being in Oregon and the Washington myself, people often act like water conservation is a joke; I mean, we have so much rain. But rain coming down, does not equal plenty to go around. We still need to conserve when possible.

Learn more:

How Much Do You Know About Water Use?

toilet water

Indy House: Sink in the toilet

How to Flush Your Toilet Using Rain Water