Incinerating Toilet

[HillbillyNerd]

Does anybody actually use an incinerating toilet? I know they are expensive but Im thinking it might be worth it for me so I want to know other peoples experiences with one. Thanks

 

[desrtdog]

My brother has one at his cabin in northern MN....works great and only a little ash left when all is said and done. However, his is electric and takes about 2KW which is probably more than you want for a bus - unless its always plugged in to shore power. Additionally, it has a rather large footprint. Also, no mercy flush unless you like things to get a bit toasty down there...:marshmallow:

 

[Danjo-SKO]

Webber makes one. Haha.

In a vehicle that is on the street I can only think of a couple situations where it would be an attractive option. Maybe Burning Man.

 

[HillbillyNerd]

Hahaha yes I call those courtesy flushes I never thought about that. I still want one anyway though, I wonder about a propane one.

 

[magnakansas]

Yes, but

Not practical, in my opinion for more than two people. I have only seen electric. The last one I bought was from a house boat. Paid $75. Looked new. Resold it to another skoolie owner.

William

 

[musigenesis]

Maybe Burning Man.

You mean Burning Poop?

 

[desrtdog]

After seeing/using my brother's I would also have liked one, but understand that after you've done your business and it's time for the incinolet to do its, it can take an hour to reduce that steamer you left into a pile of ash...that's an hour at 2000w ... you will need a huge battery bank to run one of those if boon docking. Final thought - they cost $2800 to $3000 new ... a composting toilet is about $1100...or maybe only $50 (all in built out) if you go the Home Depot 5-gal bucket route

 

[rossvtaylor]

I have an Incinolet (I think it's the TR model) which I'll be installing in my Crown. It is a 2000W element, but it's not on for the whole cycle. It uses about 1450kWh for a cycle, so that's about 60ah from a 24V battery bank. I'm designing that capacity into the system. I don't want to run a burn cycle for every pee, though, so I've planned for a bidet for that use and for cleaning. Note: Some bidets have a sprayer built in to the bottom of the bowl, which would not be sanitary to also use for urine. I'm going to put in the kind with a separate sprayer...essentially, it's a toilet bowl without a trap...and it's got a spray wand on a flexible hose. When I was in India, the signs called the wand a "health pipe" which made me chuckle.

 

[mmoore6856]

the way my ol lady farts in sure it would end up being a 13 alarm fire

 

[nikitis]

I have an Incinolet (I think it's the TR model) which I'll be installing in my Crown. It is a 2000W element, but it's not on for the whole cycle. It uses about 1450kWh for a cycle, so that's about 60ah from a 24V battery bank. I'm designing that capacity into the system. I don't want to run a burn cycle for every pee, though, so I've planned for a bidet for that use and for cleaning. Note: Some bidets have a sprayer built in to the bottom of the bowl, which would not be sanitary to also use for urine. I'm going to put in the kind with a separate sprayer...essentially, it's a toilet bowl without a trap...and it's got a spray wand on a flexible hose. When I was in India, the signs called the wand a "health pipe" which made me chuckle.

You can certainly do it, Likely will need a 3000W inverter to be on the safe side in case that item surges past a 2000W inverter capability. Anything with a heating element is going to be your biggest electricity usage by far. Stove/Range, Immolation toilet, electric heaters, Incandescent bulbs. Avoid them all like the plague IMO, especially for a bus application. Gas stove is best.

In my home (House), I got rid of the electric range, and saved $85 a month in electricity costs. (Wife cooks a lot) Switched to gas, and never looked back. Over the last 10 years, we've saved $10,200 in electricity costs for making that one move. On a bus which is already electricity constrained with how much it can generate, I think this is a terrible move to do.

When LED lighting first came out they were built better than they are today. Bulbs were designed to last 21 years. I'm 13 years in and my two children have never seen us replace a bulb in their life. Went from 45W's a bulb down to 7W's a bulb. Saved another $50 a month on the electric bill with that move. The bulbs were also more costly back then, I spent $850 on the bulbs to replace all in my house, but at $50 a month in electricity bill savings, it only took 17 months, nearly 1.5 years and the lights paid for themselves, and I've saved $6,900 in the 11.5 years remaining after paying for themselves in electricity costs.

Now granted, if you are solar'ing out your rig and your sole source of generating is from solar, it won't cost you much at all except up front costs for sizing up the system as Ross here is doing, but it still proves the point of how much electricity it's using, and if you are using shore power it's not much of an issue if your electricity is at a flat rate, though I'd hate to see that practice changed if everyone started using inceneration toilets upping the electricity costs RV/Skoolies use to where they start metering your electricity usage.

As for the functionality of the toilet, sure they work well, no complaints there.

 

[joeblack5]

I bought a used incinerating toilet with a broken heating coil. Did some experiments with building an induction heater to get to higher efficiencies..also if you divert the urine you can save a lot of energy since that part has to evaporate. Poop itself burns after it is dried out... Interesting stuff.. there is a good bit of research

literature out there..


My experiments with dog poop images, unfortunately I could not post the smells are somewhere in my Dory threads.

Johan

 

[nocoasty]

Does anybody actually use an incinerating toilet?

I know a guy in San Diego who installed one in a van he built for the sole purpose of turning a profit on it. Massive battery bank, dual alt charging, solar, and he ended up in a lawsuit because the van didn't function as expected with the toilet using so much power that he couldn't regain.