Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?

[NorthernSanctuary]

Thanks for the info, planet2 and Vidya, could be useful. I'm aware of the problem mentioned about the flooding in the spring, because I noticed that went the soil gets saturated, the water in the ground can back up and flood the septic tank. Really the septic system is obsolete because quite often, it pollutes the ground.

Vidya, the simple system you mention works, but the people are still use to the convenience of indoor plumbing, so I'm trying to come up with a solution for that if possible.

The link to magnegas also triggers me to lok into the manure biogas processor, which would also provide methane for cooking. This may turn out to be the best solution, because it still provides the convenience of indoor plumbing, and there is gas for cooking and compost also for the vegetables after due process.

Some links for people interested:

An overview report:
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:...&client=safari

Info to build (it's also a lot cheaper than the commercial ones):
http://www.ruralcostarica.com/biogas.html
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_...sters/MD3.html

[Unified Serenity]

Hi Northern Santuary,

This may sound ignorant, but would there be some odd smell cooking with methane?

[Vidya Moksha]

Originally Posted by NorthernSantuary

Vidya, the simple system you mention works, but the people are still use to the convenience of indoor plumbing, so I'm trying to come up with a solution for that if possible.

The link to magnegas also triggers me to lok into the manure biogas processor

For the system I am suggesting the indoor plumbing needs to be bypassed, or just used as a urine disposal system, which is kinda wasteful as diluted urine is such a good fertiliser. I have seen several approaches to indoor toilets, but all bypass the conventional toilet system. One system builds up a wooden frame around the existing toilet and utilises a bucket to collect solids. You sit or squat at some height off the floor, but this is no hardship. A bucket will need to be emptied weekly most likely, unless a larger storage unit can be used. It is always easier to leave the solid waste in situ until it has composted naturally, but this isnt always possible indoors; size being the restricting factor.
Urine, in all these sytems, is simply piped to the garden, that is a very simple job. Handwashing grey water is piped to the same source as the urine, providing the dilution, though some plants, such as comfrey, will take concentrated waste water with no difficulty.
Biogas seems like a good idea, but it is is not so simple in reality. In china they just make enough methane if they compost all vegetable and food matter AND garden compost as well as faecal material AND have a pig, with pig wastes entered into the same system. Otherwise there is simply too little methane to make the system viable. Although not always possible, wood is the best fuel for cooking and heating, and the ash is so useful for treating the composted material.
Also with biogas you need a large storage area, if you can even consider this sort of storage size then compost toilet space will be easily achieved.
VM