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Termyn8or -> RE: The Plunger (2/3/2008 12:05:17 PM)
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I've been thinking about this for seconds now and as usual have something to say. I must admit I have never lived with a water problem, but I am a problem solver by nature.
I and my decadent cohorts in the eastern midwest, who live right near one of the GREAT lakes just let water go down the tubes. We call roto rooter to get rid of water. Sometimes water is not our friend.
Like I said, now I have had over a full minute to think about it so I'll put that on the table now.
Down the tubes is the key. You could get radical on this.
You use water to wash food before cooking. Well what is wrong with a little dirt other than being unappealing on your plate ? Plus the water you steam or boil veggies in. Toss that in the tub. Run a bath. If everybody bathes or showers regularly you can reuse bathwater, just a quick shower off after to be really clean can do it. And leave the water in the tub for the next person, and then when they shower off, leave that water as well. More water will dilute the muck and yuck that we bathe or shower to get rid of, the water is not perfectly clean, but everybody gets a shot of that nice clean water at the end of their bath. They are clean.
Then in the wintertime you leave that water in the tub all night, because you paid to heat it and it will help heat the house.
OK, if you boil pasta, you probably don't want to use the waste water for the bath(s). In the case of veggies, if any other process in the recipe calls for water, it is obvious that you use that water. Sometimes it becomes soup or gravy or whatever. It could provide some warmth for the bathwater and might even have some nutriative properties. You decide that on a per case basis. Remember everybody gets a quick shower after so they are clean. Laying in the water is for soaping up etc. Then you stand up and it's all gone.
The water from there is fit for the toilet. You will have to clean it more, and there would have to be a reservior somehow. Because eventually you have to empty the tub and wipe it down. Might have to pipe it up into a tank in the attic.
OMG, you have just inspired me to think of something.
People who live in areas with water supply problems do get some rain and snow. A friend of mine wanted to have all his gutters directed to a tank, which he intended to hook to the toilet. It was a single house, the bathroom was on the first floor, this is doable. Gravity will do most of the work. No pump.
He was a very smart Man, and I miss him. He was about fifteen years my senior, but that never proved me any smarts. No, he did that himself. He recognized me as the engineering type that I am and once in a while he would call and throw me a question, and this guy was not stupid. Sometimes the question was in the form 'Why can't I...'. I gave him quite a few becauses, but a couple of times I said "You can". When I said that I could feel the enthusiasm over the phone.
This only pertinent because he had lived out west for a time. Figuring out this rain collector was just due to his water bill.
Now I question this. Why wouldn't rain water be good enough to shower in ?
But that depends on how much you can get.
You might go shovel snow with my new invention, a roll around tank, you throw the snow in and it is melted quickly. It also has a pump, hook it up to the big tank up high and leter rip.
Dirty dishwater can also be used to flush the toilet, so into the tank it goes. It all goes to the same pump, and the tank has a float, when empty the water is automatically switched back to the normal supply.
There are many options, but some things you just can't do, like using dishwater for bath and vice versa. But down the toilet ? I guess you could call that the ultimate end user. And once it goes down there I don't think it would be a good idea to spray that shit on the lawn (ummm, take that as literally as you like, I decline to comment at this time).
It amazes me almost how they can manage your life, and all this but can't manage water, one of our most basic resources. Shit, it is too eartly in the day to get started on this shit, but oh well.
What might seem too simplistic to some, is simply a pipeline and a pump. A BIG one.
Now a BIG pipe is not easy to move. Let's say the suction end goes in lake Superior and we have ample water. Just where do we put it ? With all this energy, material and labor cost we had better know where we are going.
To move water on the scale of which I am speaking is mankind exerting influence on Mother Nature. Some would say that is not nice. Usually I agree. But this unit must survive, thus the paradox.
With any luck and brains, the paradox is resolved in favor of the beholder.
I mean if we have to empty lake Superior into bumfukt Kansas somewhere so be it. With any luck it will have a positive impact on surrounding climates and we can stop importing over half of our food. I agree that this would be a big move. We would be changing the environment.But so what ? We do nothing but change the environment every day anyway,
It's called irrigation and has been practiced all over the world in human history. But somehow our "leaders" have forgotten a few things.
Enough on this for now, I'll be baaaack.
T
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