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larryh
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# Posted: 28 Jun 2012 09:14
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Hi all,
I have both a older conventional pit privy as well as a newer sawdust potty composting type system. In summer for convenience I prefer the ease of he privy but the smell and bugs have been enough to drive me back to the sawdust potty. I discovered with the inside sawdust method that as the writer of the Humanuer book says that peat moss is an ideal cover. It holds down the odors more than the dried pet bedding chips I was using and I see others use. Plus it resisted composting much at all also. After the good results with the peat moss I decided to give the same idea a try in the pit privy this year. I put my 5 gallon can of peat along side the seat and provided a small old sauce pan to scoop some peat out and dump it over the "pile" as it was added too. I have been quite pleased with the results. Its barely noticeable odor wise now and its cut the pesky little fly types down to almost nothing. It doesn't take a lot to work either it seems. It may fill up the pit sooner, but its worth it and with a 4 by 4 by 4 pit it will take some time with settling for it to become full.
Larry
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jun 2012 10:23 - Edited by: groingo
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I used the Peat Moss method a little over a year and it did keep the odors down but due to the lack of high temperature needed to break the solids down it also accumilated quickly in the pit and I even tried adding bacteria to it to get it to break down better, long story short, I found that a simple vent tube worked just as good for removing odors and reducing accumilations but with out a way to kick start the high temperatures needed to break down the material I was just crapping in a hole in the ground.
Now I use a slurry method where solids drop through a screen which separate's solids from liquids, which drain through another screen which drain into a three foot deep mix of wood chips and peat moss with the ultimate result being filtered and heavily diluted liquid that returns to the ground and dissipates well below ground level.
It is clean, odorless and thus far working well and every time I open the lid it is clean and empty.
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exsailor
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# Posted: 28 Jun 2012 10:42
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groingo
I am having a hard time picturing your set up. Particularly the seperating liquids for solids process. Can you elaborate further. For instance is everything funneled down a chute and screen separated? How did you modify an existing outhouse or did you? Thanks for your time in this matter.
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jun 2012 16:01
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First, my toilet is a Coleman camping toilet with 3 gallon holding tank, when full I dump it into the outdoor slurry tank which is a 30 gallon heavy duty plastic garbage can that sets into a 3 foot deep hole in the ground.
The bottom of the tank has 10 1/2 inch holes drilled in it for drainage onto the wood chip filter that the tank sets on.
A foot below the tank top sets a mesh screen (off of a rotary fan) that allows liquids to pass through but medium solids to be held.
You can either spray the solids with water to break them down or wait a couple days while they dry out and in doing so they shrink and drop to the bottom where you add water and again let it dilute down and pass off as a liquid into the ground.
What I plan to do is move the pit every year or so to prevent to high of concentrations and locate always at least too hundred feet away from your water source and always down stream.
I used this system a couple of years ago but last year gave the Peat and sawdust method a shot but without a way to generate heat to kick start the bacterial process the slurry was a far better way for me as it leaves no visible waste.
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bugs
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jun 2012 18:53
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Ummm we have a composting toilet using a 5 gal pail and wood shavings rather than peat moss (nonrenewable) or sawdust (can't find sawdust anywhere )
So far things have not been too bad even at +27C. We have a simple venting system for the outhouse that draws air from the bottom and as it heats up exhausts it near the top. Also we have a wonderful view from the outhouse so we usually have the door open.
We use four bins (and counting) that we put deposits in with some leaf mold and "it" seems to break down within a year (freeze thaw) and then the "compost" goes into regular composting bin and is going to be recycled back as the leaf mold portion of our system. We found we did have to drill a hole near the bottom of the bins to let the "liquids" escape. So essentially the system is almost closed.
On our holidays we came across this in a pet store and of course our thoughts were of our using some at our little shack but I suspect customs would not approve .
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larryh
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jun 2012 19:10
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I wasn't worried about the composting of the privy. That can just fill in till either I dig a new pit or give it up for the compost privy with the inside container. I also have that pail type privy I have put some photos of up on the group here a couple points I think. It also is outside and uses a small galvanized trash can as the receptacle. Its a bit heavier to move if you fill it than the five gallon buckets are. I use it once in a while, it could be modified to use the 5 gallon bucket now that I consider that idea. The problem with wood shavings is supposed to be that they do not compost easily at high temperatures as some other things. I have some in an old garbage can that I used before building the wood compost bin, that was over two years ago now and so far its still pretty much wood chips in the bottom of the can. Actually my bin also is reluctant to heat up for some reason. For a short while this spring it hit 100 in the pile but never got any higher, it then fell and stays more like 80 most of the time, not near enough to kill anything. It may be it needs more moisture. We are not getting rain for sure.. 108 here right now, which is really hot for us in June if ever.
Larry
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Malamute
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jun 2012 21:06
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I used wood ashes from the woodstove in my outhouse. It kept the odors down and the flies as well. I kept a small metal trash can in the outhouse with a scoop, and just dumped part of a scoop in when done. It worked pretty well.
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OwenChristensen
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jun 2012 11:09
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I have a vent and ground off the lugs on the bottom of the seat so it doesn't vent into the outhouse.
Owen
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larryh
Member
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# Posted: 1 Jul 2012 08:45
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I also have a built in vent that come up to the top of the rear wall but it does not work well. The outhouse I have that is the Pail Privy type does have a vent to a copula type top portion which seems to work better and although difficult to build does create a better draft. Plus with the pail set up it draws air in on both sides at the bottom of the area under the seat. I will put up another photo of that set up for those who have not see it, its from an old government sanitary privy literature.
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 1 Jul 2012 17:25
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Get some dolomite lime to sprinkle a smidge down the hatch and also in the RV section at Wal Mart, they have deodorant for the holding tanks, sprinkle that down the hatch too.
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razmichael
Member
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# Posted: 3 Jul 2012 07:41
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Obviously a lot of things with an outhouse depend on the amount of use and ours is a weekend/occasional week use for a family of four so it is not heavily used. The odour in ours is very minimal (I'd rather go into it after my son has used it than the bathroom at home!). I used a sealed design to minimize any air flow between the outhouse and the pit and with two vent pipes to provide air circulation in the pit. Sealed because there is limited leaks between the pit and the outhouse when the seat is down. Vapour barrier under the floor (obviously not under the hole!) and the wood seat/cover has weather stripping so it seals well (lugs removed). One vent pipe extends much higher up above the roof and is black to heat up and cause some drafting. It extends down into the upper part of the pit. The second vent is much shorter on the roof and white. It extends much further down into the pit. Each vent has a curved end with the black pipe facing away from the prevalent wind and the other into the wind (also a good place to stick bug screening). The aim is to provide a good air circulation into and out of the pit without any flow through the main outhouse.
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 18 Jul 2012 10:44
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A friend of mine had his pit filling up and he used one of the new "bacterial" agents and it reduced his "mound" and he claims it diminished any odor. But he has a vent pipe with a whirleygig on top. He thinks he'll get a few more years out of his pit now.
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 18 Jul 2012 12:00
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If your vent pipe gets sun during the day it will help to paint it black. This will heat up more from the sun and thus create a better draw. I've also known people to put those little computer fans in their stack.
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Scott_T
Member
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# Posted: 20 Jul 2012 14:10 - Edited by: Scott_T
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I use composting (humanure method) toilet in the outhouse. I've not noticed any offensive odors from this process yet. I empty the bucket after a weekend of use to the compost "pile" nearby, turn it a couple times and leave it. Great system.
I fill a 5 gallon bucket with chipped/shredded trees of my own making mixed homogenously with about a gallon of aged compost from my suburban home pile (no humanure in there only kitchen vegetable scraps and yard trimmings). This gets used as cover material after a BM. The bacteria and moisture in the aged compost tend to speed up the decomposition once thrown into the pile.
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calliekitty520
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# Posted: 24 Jul 2012 15:24
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check out "moldering" compost toilets.............seems to me the way to go.
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dvgchef
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# Posted: 25 Jul 2012 23:01
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I have two moldering privies; one is scentless, the other gets ripe around noon each day; guess I need a vent pipe!
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