The Integral Urban House

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The toilet works, briefly, as follows: Excrement falls into a large, slatted fiberglass rank (which is vented to the outside of the house) containing a series of baffles. As the wastes accumulate, they slowly slide down the container's sloping bottom from one compartment to another and undergo aerobic decomposition. After a two-year digestion period (to allow disease-causing micro-organisms a chance to die), the wastes can be removed from the Clivus in the form of compost.

Despite the fact that present American sewage systems aren't 100% safe (a sewage worker strike could lead to disaster), health officials will not approve the use of Clivus compost on a garden for fear that if certain pathogens did survive the composting process, they might be passed to humans via the vegetables. "We have a solution to the pathogen problem," says Charles O'Loughlin (who, incidentally, has obtained a grant to study composting toilets). "And that's to use the finished compost only on ornamental plants, thereby avoiding contamination of food."

Regardless of whether or not one uses the high-grade fertilizer that comes out of it, the Clivus Multrum is a worthwhile addition to the homestead from another point of view: It consumes no water. "Thanks to our Clivus Multrum," asserts Tom Javits, "I figure we use as much water in this entire house-for bathing, washing dishes, and so on-as the average family does just in flushing their toilet."

And what little water the IUH residents do use gets recycled. "Gray water" from the sinks and shower goes into a holding tank and is then channeled—along with urine—to the garden. "The mixture of gray water and urine," Tom says, "is a well-balanced one—chemically speaking—for our garden. Gray water is high in phosphorus—from detergents—and urine, of course, is rich in nitrogen." Phosphates, Tom is quick to point out, are usually harmful to aquatic ecosystems (rivers, lakes, and streams). "But in a terrestrial system such as a garden they can be very beneficial."

SOLAR HEATED WATER

Nearly all the IUH's hot water needs are met by a solar heater that can warm 120 gallons of water in an attic storage tank to surprisingly high temperatures . . . often past 170° F.

The 86-square-foot solar collector that is the heart of the system is the "Ritz of homebuilt collectors" and is expected to last the lifetime of the house. Doug Daniels, who helped I design the solar-powered heater, says the complete system—including storage tank and pipes (items that would've been required for a conventional electrically operated heater anyway)—cost around $900 to build, not counting labor. Taking into account the utility bills and maintenance costs associated with more traditional water heaters, Doug figures that the solar-powered setup should pay for itself in 10 years.

A small electric water heater acts as an emergency backup system. (Although electric water heaters are less efficient than gas-fired units, the pilot light on a gas heater must burn continuously. And, since the IUH backup is called upon so infrequently, that would be rather wasteful.) So far, the electric standby has been used only three times . . . and even then it was relatively efficient since it was being fed water that'd been pre-warmed to 95° F by the solar heating system.

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