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Reduce your water consumption!
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:46 pm
by ina
A friend sent this to me, and I like the idea so much that I thought I'd post the link - even if it is in German... The picture speaks for itself, though: a combination of hand washing and loo flushing!
http://www.zeit.de/online/2008/07/bg-make
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:49 pm
by marshlander
Ah, it all becomes clear!
now I know a chamber pot is called a gazunder.
I always thought it was because it goes under the bed.
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:11 am
by John Headstrong
that is interesting it seems to be a kit version of this
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/0 ... _sink.html
the smallest gray water system you can have!
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 8:47 am
by Annpan
pretty nifty, but looks a bit uncomfortable to wash your hands over the cystern - I am sure that with a few tweaks it could feed a small basin to the side of your tank so that you don't have to straddle the toilet to wash your hands.
In fact if you somehow plumbed your cystern in to take all waste water from you wash hand basin, with the cystern overflow plumbed into the usual waste. hmmm.... something to add to the 'to do' list
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:11 am
by ina
Yeah, I think they only arranged it that way to look nifty in the photo. But - of course, you can just stick an old bowl in the sink and empty it into the loo once you've washed your hands. I used to do that in Germany (less water floating about the country, and you pay for it!), and always got funny looks from visitors.
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:13 pm
by Dendrobium
I'm sure everyone knows this one here already (but for those that don't....) if like me you want to cut down on loo flushing and the above plumbing (in my case ANY plumbing) isn't your thing, stick a brick in the cistern, it'll displace the water and cut down on how much water you use. Our local water board, Anglian, even give away plastic bottles you can fill with mud or sand to do the same job too. They also give away fat traps so save old cooking fat so you can turn them into bird-feed, plus stop clogging drains with lard--- it was a while ago they gave them away, I imagine other water boards are doing the same thing?????
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:43 pm
by Annpan
A plastic bottle filled with water will do the same job... brick is really NOT a good idea as people tend to break their cistern with it. I also wouldn't want to put any mud in my cistern either, incase the bottle lid becomes loose
My cistern is an odd shape so I have several small drinks bottles in there, they are easier to move if I need to repair or replace it than a brick would be.