Composting toilets can be expensive things if you choose to buy the fancy all-in-one devices. Most aren’t much more than a seperator seat to keep the pee and solids apart, with some sort of fan to dry the solids a bit, and keep any smells to a minimum. Usually pee is piped away to a container someplace. The good news is that you can put in a seperator for £30 and get yourself a bucket. Our own model uses just such an arrangement – the pee goes direct into a 2 gallon container which gets emptied every couple of days (soon it’ll be piped into something a bit bigger and outside); and the rest into a container which we line with newspaper and empty every 2 weeks. Just add sawdust as you go and there won’t be any problem with odours.
Technically its a compost loo, not a composting loo, as the composting takes place elsewhere – we have a very seperate plastic composting bin in which waste will sit for a good long time until it has broken down fully – the extra carbon in the form of sawdust and paper will take care of that.
The seperator and loo seat are screwed to a removable panel (above) which hides all the lovely containers. You do need to keep a close eye on the liquid levels, to prevent any potentially nasty overflows, but otherwise it is all pretty easy to deal with.
This is the first indoor compost loo we’ve made – the lovely outdoor ones are here and we’ll be building a new one here soon to save folk always having to come into the house. Plus the view is going to be stunning, believe me.
Incidentally, we like our bathroom for other reasons, primarily that it contains so much recycled stuff. From the freecycled tiles on the wall, to the old cast iron bath from a house refurb in Belfast, to the sink that came from a garden, and the panelling made from old bits of roof joist.
Do you need any ventilation? I have the space reserved for one, but it’s still on the to-do list. As it may be temporary, I’d like to be able to avoid making vent holes in the wall.
Well John, I put off hacking a hole through the 2 foot thick stone wall, and I’m glad I did – apart from the odd time, it really doesn’t smell, especially if you use plenty of sawdust. The pee container is more likely to smell hence it isn’t terribly big and doesn’t get stored for long. This summer I’ll drill a 1″ hole out and pipe it to the outside world as it always has a tencency to fill up last thing on a rainy night necessitating a trek over to the compost heap in the dark.
That’s good to know. Unfortunately, the seat I was saving for it has just been used to replace the broken one next door! My loo site is right next to the outside door, so I could put in a small vent if needed, but want to get rid of draughts, not create them! I’m using 2 litre plastic milk bottles for pee at the moment, so the cap is on when they’re not being filled, so that will need some thought.
If you weren’t planning to use a seperator seat I would recommend it, and just run a hose to a larger container for the pee.
Hi Lads
Just bought 4.5 acres and am looking at horse trucks to convert also.I am not the best at diy but i am going to give it a go:-)
Just wondering what you guys do with the pee to get rid after you fill up your containers
Thanks in advance for any responses
Best Regards Anthony
Hey Anthony -make a contained compost heap from pallets and put the pee on the heap. You need a good bit of paper, card and organic matter to stop it getting too wet.