Flushing toilets with bottled water – Coriolis effect
Seriously, flushing toilets using bottled water?? How insane is that. A rhetorical, indignant question/statement/judgement from Bart’s sister, Lisa Simpson.
For many years the Coriolis effect was the almost only and very singular reason for watching the flush in a toilet bowl. They say (Gary Larsen knows who they are) that water drains away in a clock-wise direction in the Southern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the Northern hemisphere. For many, watching water drain from a toilet bowl, bath tub or basin, is an amusing and reflective moment.
Flushing toilets using bottled water – who does that?
In times of want, the luxury of flushing a toilet with bottled or high quality drinking water is deemed highly extravagant and very wasteful. It is the insulting liquid equivalent of “let them eat cake”.
With the prolonged drought in Cape Town, most non-cake eating citizens are using alternative water sources for flushing their toilets. The low hanging fruit is abstinence during the mellow stage. Thereafter some sort of big gun is required and this comes in various forms, including shower water, rain water, well-point water, bore-hole water or treated water. Whatever the source, the emergent zeitgeist is – use your water twice .
And it is surprisingly easy. For a home, alternative water treatment and pressure recycling to the toilets is not rocket science and not hideously expensive. The cost saving won’t pay for the exercise in a hurry, but the satisfaction gleaned in significantly lowering monthly water consumption is palpable. By using water twice, flushing toilets using bottled water is completely unnecessary.
The procedures involved in using water twice, include
- collection of the alternative water source
- some form of treatment, the extent and sophistication will be dependent on the source
- a booster pump with pressure and flow control
- plumbing from the booster pump to the toilets
Retrofitting pipework to toilets in a house can be a daunting and expensive exercise. It is, however, seen as a wise investment and an expenditure that will in all likeliness add an enhanced CPi resale valuation.