Wv going 'GREEN..its been there for years! (Jefferson: prebuilt, mover)

[Hinton Bound]

Originally Posted by snorpus

Tell me more.

Is there a storage compartment below (or in the basement)? Any problems with building permits? Did you have a drain field for gray water, recycle it to the garden, or ?

A septic tank and drain field is one of the biggest PITAs about living in the country.

The commode is on the 2nd floor. It's a regular looking commode, it ha2 a water line hooked up, just like a regular bowl. When you flush it, the water and waste travel down a 3" PVC pipe to a tank in the basement. The tank is a about 3' wide X 3' tall. There is an electric element that continually dries and turn the waste. Also has a vent line that pulls the air out and vents it. No smell, no mess- very tidy. The final product falls through a screen into a collection bin. Pull it out and empty it. It's that easy.

No permit required, it's a self contained unit. For our

gray water, it flows into our pond. As we're all organic, there are no hazardous chemicals going in.

~Mark

[Sharedspirit]

I live in an old yankee framed farm house that is falling over...literally. The foundation is shot. We will have to build and I'm really interested in Green buildings. Expecially since I'm very sensitive to chemicals. I can't even walk into a new mobile home without getting sick. We've looked into Yurts and thought those were pretty cool! I could handle living in a yurt.

[harborlady]

Originally Posted by tbailey1138

Speaking of going green, not sure how many of you saw this but I thought it was pretty cool. A guy from Huntington invented and is producing a mobile generator called the Powerwagon. It charges while you pull it behind you. This would be neat to have at tailgates and on camping trips.

Welcome to the Powerwagon Frontpage

Local company starts up with eco-friendly generator - The Herald Dispatch

"Green" Jobs Coming to Huntington

Neat idea. That also has great potential for remote location emergency response. Fire crews, CG, National guard etc. Recharge= drag it a mile & back. LOL

Hinton and snorp-- as far as I'm aware gray water isn't recommended for ponds or gardens that are edible due to risk of contamination (ecoli, cholera, etc). General landscape/ ornamentals watering worked out in compliance just about everywhere unless you weren't nearby a waterway. Hard to tell how these things would play out from one municipality to another. That system sounds pretty neat though-- who makes it?

DK as OP author, wondering if I ever mentioned the berm house being built in east TN documented on CD. I can post the link here if y'all would like but it's a very long thread now (70 pgs & counting). Their home is not a statement of wealth. Just ordinary people accomplishing an extraordinary task. Modest digs in a majestic landscape. They've volunteered to the be guinea pigs.

[David Kennedy]

HB: In our theoretical Wv Greenhouse, if we do not generate electricity and have refrigeration, we will harvest the larger guinea pigs as a food source....sound OK?

[vec101]

Originally Posted by mezzogirl

Do y'all find that a lot of people in WV go off grid? I mean, intentionally, not because they inherited a camper with no running water....And sometimes I see real estate listings that boast "free gas." Is that a common amenity on big parcels of land?
I like the idea of living small and simple- under 1500 square feet with solar/wind power using local materials, heat with woodstove/fireplaces, etc.

I think a lot of people come to WV for the purpose of going off-grid.

Like the other poster said, you don't have to have a large parcel for free gas. Gas companies often do/did give free gas as part of the bargain to drill the gas from your property.

[Hinton Bound]

Originally Posted by harborlady

Hinton and snorp-- as far as I'm aware gray water isn't recommended for ponds or gardens that are edible due to risk of contamination (ecoli, cholera, etc). General landscape/ ornamentals watering worked out in compliance just about everywhere unless you weren't nearby a waterway. Hard to tell how these things would play out from one municipality to another. That system sounds pretty neat though-- who makes it?

Our gray water doesn't contain bodily waste. Only stuff from the sink or shower (OK, I have two boys, so there might be some liquid waste... )goes to the pond. We don't use the pond for water, or watering; I don't think there's much possibilty of contamination. I mean, cow's have been pee'ing in the pond almost daily for years. It's spring fed, and drains out down a small stream into a ravine.

I can't find the exact unit I have, but this one looks identical... only difference is we don't sit on the unit itself like the picture shows Envirolet Waterless Self-Contained Composting Toilet Systems . I don't think there would be any zoning required anywhere you live. You're not putting anything into the ground, or any public sewer. I throw our peat/dust in the woods, could just as easily put it in the trash. I can say for certain, no one on our mountain asked if they could put up an out house!

[David Kennedy]

The 'Gray area here is the potential to contaminate water owned by the Federal Government.

All the natural running water in the U.S. is now owed by the federal government. Certain Use Rights carry sway in the west for irrigation and Deeds convey Rights here in the east.(certain parcels of land own the parts of rivers that pass through)...

but let just one Warden in any national forest see you taking a wiz in a stream...it's a fine for polluting, pure and simple.

This commode might cost you some money in the future...I would keep it under wraps...gray water, where it is legal to divide from the other waste material, must be sent to a separate holding tank to filter into the ground or be collected and removed...which ever pretains to the rules of your county..

[snorpus]

I'm not sure it's a zoning issue, as much as a permitting issue. Where I am now, you don't get the building permit until your "wastewater disposal plan" is approved. Perc test, approved size and type of septic tank, size of drain field, etc. If a bank's involved by way of either a mortgage or a construction loan, they'll want to see the permits as well.

While your neighbor up on the mountain may have built an outhouse without permits, since this is a "Green" thread we don't want to do it that way... not to mention, on nights like tonight, that trip out to the little building is mighty cold.

[Threerun]

Originally Posted by snorpus

Free gas isn't necessarily tied to a large amount of land... It depends on three things: 1) Is there economicaly recoverable gas beneath your property? 2) Do you own the mineral rights, or were they sold by a previous owner? and 3) Does the driller want to structure the deal that way? (as opposed to a flat fee, a royalty per mcf, or some other formula).

Wood heat, by the way, is definitely not a "green" choice.

Why isn't wood heat 'green'? I hadn't heard that before. Maybe the old choker stoves were dirty... I burned about 4-5 cords a year in a stove that emitted less than 1gr particulate in an hour. Kept the house a nice and toasty 72deg.

With the right size woodlot, and right kind of stove, seems pretty green to me.

[David Kennedy]

3-Run: imo, Building Green is not so much about 'common sense as it is spending a lot of money for a dwelling that is very small and uses waste materials as building materials.

Building has come a very long way..Energy Star Ratings and other criteria have brought building to a very high level of efficiency. (one of the things that simply astounds me with the better modular home companies...and it is forcing 'stick builders to look at these building practices too.

We backfill our ditches and foundations with cinders...'who would have thought?...if a re-cut is done on that site, the ditch is recognized at once...and about that 'backfill...worth money at 'tax time as a special credit and recomended by the foundation company...

I want to build a small cabin in our woods and am willing to do that in a eco-friendly, 'Green way...but I can't see it being built out of corncobs or bullrushes or any other hokey material that will cost me 'time efficiency or the justification to vanity...To say that 'I live here in this shack and built it for $400,000 is not a credible game to me." Credible design to terrain, cost, workablility and function are the best movers for the project...and a usage of common items found but not usually used in building a home IS.