…and, this is the hard part, get the system passed (in conjunction with a composting toilet) as a legal POWTS (Personal On-Site Water Treatment System) in Wisconsin.

As far as I know, Wisconsin is fairly forward thinking in their acceptance of differing septic systems – even accepting constructed wetlands as a valid design, but the wife and I have had little luck as of yet finding much info on greywater acceptance. The info I have found appears to point towards general acceptance if designed correctly, and a link at the Greywater Action website states “Wisconsin bill eases graywater code” —but unfortunately the link is dead. The Rainbow Water Coalition has a quote from the same article (along with the same dead link): Read the rest of this entry →

I’ll give a brief lesson on the reverse engineering techniques I used to create the model of the Envirolet composting chamber to the right in a future post.

Today’s post is about the system design itself. Hopefully by the end of today the WordPress Multi-Site feature will be up and running, and posts relating to different topics will be posted in their own sub-site, but for a bit, I am stuck with all posts piling into here. But I digress…..on with the potty talk.

I ordered several books by Art Ludwig at Oasis Design to gather a bit more knowledge on the subject from someone with a great deal of experience, but I think I have a pretty damn feasible start to the design.

It is basically one of Art’s Branched Drain-Fed Mulch Basin Systems that has been redesigned with a cold frame top. I’ll post details on that part within the next few days, but for now, the other end of the system… Read the rest of this entry →

I have toyed with the concept for many years now –a small self-built house that is easily transformed if desired into a larger structure at a later date…

…and the time has come to put it on paper (so-to-speak). I call the concept a ‘Seed” house as it can grow into something larger –or just different, without much effort. The expansion capabilities are built into the design in a BIM sort of way —fully 3D modeled with all components and systems spelled out in detail before construction begins. This same model and information is used and updated for the life of the structure for maintenance and remodeling.

On with the design….. here are the major design goals I would like to achieve:

• Small footprint
• Energy efficient
• Low water consumption.
• Low cost (Relatively of course)
• Ease of construction (self build)
• Open floor plan
• Salability

Read the rest of this entry →

I had originally decided to go with the BioLet 60 XL after reading the info on their website and a few reviews. I even fired up Inventor and roughed-in a 3D model…

…but then I started finding the reviews from people who actually owned one of the units, and it wasn’t pretty. You can read the comments for yourself at CompareTheBrands.com. Scroll down past the website’s puffery (they recommend the BioLet for a small family) and you get into the consumer comments that are not quite so rosy. Also here. And some on Envirolet here. The vast majority seem to be complaints on self contained units.

So I will need to do quite a bit more homework. I liked the Envirolet low water model, but then found out that it requires a drain to a ‘Blackwater Drain Pit’ (the image below) —which is a very small septic field. But…..a septic field that accepts blackwater is likely to have all kinds of State hurdles to jump through, and in the end may cost the same ridiculous amount as a ‘normal’ septic system. The one shown is minuscule though, so maybe there is hope Read the rest of this entry →

Welcome to 3D Eco Design using Autodesk Inventor. WordPress makes these “Hello World” posts automatically when a new blog is created … this time I decided to just leave it here. Welcome to the new Eco Home channel of the Open Design Project!