Save water and clean your toilet I've had an idea. I think it's brilliant, although there are a few kinks to be worked out. The toilet is the largest consumer of water in an average North American household. But, it doesn't have to use fresh water, it could use water that has already been used for something else. So, why not have water from your shower fill a tank that the toilets would draw from. It probably wouldn't be enough but you could supplement it with rainwater and have an inlet for fresh water whenever the water got below a certain level. That way you're not running the risk of the toilet running out of water and you're cutting down on your fresh water consumption. There are a few problems I've thought of already. The biggest, I think, is that the soap in the water from the shower would build up inside the tank and all the workings. Probably not a good thing. It might be possible to run the water through a filter of some kind. Or, maybe some kind of chemical that would neutralize the soap and itself at the same time like an acid-base reaction. I figure that even if it isn't really marketable, since water is cheap and no one is really that concerned about water usage (although they should be!), I could still have the idea looked into and maybe designed for my house. Always assuming I have enough money to throw around in crazy ventures like this. And, maybe the soap in the water would kill bacteria too...like a pre-cleaning toilet! |