Update 6.25.13
Tonight I tied up some loose ends like scraping the over painted areas off of the doors and putting another coat on the cabinets, I also picked up a grey water holder… getting ever so closer to not ‘camping’. I’m not sure it counts as ‘living’ in the tiny house so long as I have to go in another house to use the plumbing…
On that note, Sun-Mar is not getting good reviews from me once again. They shipped the wrong unit to me several months ago at this point, they send a broken unit and, I just discovered now that I am finally getting ready to install the thing that they did not send a pretty important part… wrong, incomplete and broken… that is three pretty big thumbs down in my opinion… I have been searching and searching online to find a contact to the main manufacturer (the local rep is totally ‘batty’, to put it nicely… I really don’t want to deal with her if I can avoid it, when I went to pick up the toilet I got a forty minute lecture about how the world is going to end in the next few months and how no one is prepared along with a list of things I ought to do to prepare better… ). I am hoping they are willing to resolve the issue without charging me more… we will see.
Here are some pictures:
Macy, can you write a little more on your grey water system? Is there some sort of filter in your vanilla barrel? Will your pump pump in or pump out? Thank you!
I absolutely will.. when I get to that point :), I am figuring out the details in my noggen right now. I will need some sort of filter to catch the solids that may slip down the sink. The pump will pump out of the barrel though, I am going to use the water in my garden. That’s what I know for now! 🙂
Filter, yes, and possibly a series of them, depending on what the output contains. Definitely have some way to check the water output periodically. Kitchen sinks (or things used like them) are typically considered “black” water, rather than grey, so that may affect how you deal with it… Basic first step? Perhaps a mesh screen instead of a standard sink strainer? They seem to catch stuff so much better than the strainer that comes with the sink. I’ve also seen some amazing info on “natural” filter systems (some theoretical, some in use). Basic idea: water from the home (part or all, depending on system) drains into a reservoir/pool/container with water plants, layers of gravel/dirt/sand/etc and after going through all that, the water moves to a secondary cistern that is then used in the garden etc. Unless the top is covered, it allows the sunlight to kill bacteria like a UV light, allowed chlorine and the like to evaporate away. Can’t remember how it dealt with solids, but might be worth looking into – seemed efficient and pretty!