Debs. Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 72%. I'm not tight, just frugal. I'm half Yorkshire too which probably says it all. Still, there's some things that I just wouldn't do. (who leaves their pee to brew in the bog to save water?) My ex! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsv1000r Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 My ex! NICE!?!?! does it turn into alcohol??? would bring a whole new meaning to being full of festive spirit if it did!!!!! Nigel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted December 31, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 31, 2011 (who leaves their pee to brew in the bog to save water?) I thought everybody did that at home (but not when visiting friends) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted December 31, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 31, 2011 Still, there's some things that I just wouldn't do. (who leaves their pee to brew in the bog to save water?) A particularly savoury area for discussion on NYE! All water and sewerage systems are not created equal. Most houses in towns and large villages have mains drainage - you flush and forget - for which you pay a fixed charge. Some more rural houses have cesspools - they simply fill up and you have to get the man with the smelly lorry round to take out 2000 gallons. If your cistern holds 5 gallons, that's apparently 400 flushes, which isn't really very many, not least because your bathwater, washing-up water and laundry water also go into the same tank, so actually you don't get anywhere near 400 flushes. At £50+ an empty (when we left Kent in 2004) you can pay several hundred pounds a year, much more than I think the average town-dweller is charged for their sewerage. Does flushing every time seem quite such a good idea? Other rural houses have a septic tank. This purports to retain the solids, while allowing the liquid to seep down to a soakaway. You get the tank emptied every few years - and keep the kids out of the soakaway. We have had ours here emptied once, and it wasn't too pricey. We have a water meter, so we pay a variable charge by use, and I think the UK is now increasingly introducing them, too. If you pay, in effect, for every flush, then rather than just "saving water" by not doing so, you are also saving money as well. Does that change the view a little? Your call! Lastly, most French cisterns enable you to choose whether to use a whole cistern-full of water, or simply a smaller volume. This is quite adequate for liquid dispersal, of course, although it may not take all the paper if you used that. I do not recall seeing such a cistern in the UK. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 I got 100% as i would expect any proper Sheffielder to do - anything less is just waste Blimey, I reckon if you're that tight, you could eat a lump of coal and cr@p a 20 carat diamond. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted December 31, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 31, 2011 Lastly, most French cisterns enable you to choose whether to use a whole cistern-full of water, or simply a smaller volume. This is quite adequate for liquid dispersal, of course, although it may not take all the paper if you used that. I do not recall seeing such a cistern in the UK. All our installed cisterns offer that choice and it was commonly available when we buying the plumbing fit for our house in 2006/7 (a quick Google shows that dual-flushing was reintroduced to the UK in 1999 and that the maximum volume of flushing water which may be used is either 4 litres for a 'small flush' or 6 litres for a 'big flush'). According to Thames Water, our provider, the 2011/12 cost of a single toilet flush for someone using metered water is c.1.5p so it is easy to work out how much water, and money, we save and the Thames Valley is also officially an area of High Water Stress so saving a drop here and there is no bad thing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Most of the toilets I have been in in factories and public places have a 'cistern miser' valve on the urinal cistern to only fill it when there is a lot of use. The net result? It stinks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bert Cheese Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 A friend of mines father uses a bucket to collect the initially cold water when running the hot tap until the water runs warm enough for use, the cold water he has retained is used to "flush" the toilet without using the cistern mechanism! I only found out about this recently, it may explain why his son always dives into the gents when we are in the pub in order to avoid getting the first round in... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iL Dottore Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 (who leaves their pee to brew in the bog to save water?) It's probably more common than you (would like to) think. In a science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in a future dystopia, to save energy and water citizens were "encouraged" to adhere to the following mantra: "if it's brown, flush it down; if it's yellow, let it mellow". and I can't see such a concept arising out of nowhere... Of course, to be really Scrooge like, chamber pots should be used and regularly emptied by throwing into the street (as they did in Georgian London) - total cost? £0.00! (might even be environmentally friendly as well ) F in case you're wondering, I only scored 35% Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iL Dottore Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 ...Lastly, most French cisterns enable you to choose whether to use a whole cistern-full of water, or simply a smaller volume. This is quite adequate for liquid dispersal, of course, although it may not take all the paper if you used that. I do not recall seeing such a cistern in the UK. They are quite common in Switzerland as well and they now seem to be the only type of cistern available for new loos. It does make sense, why use several litres of water for a two or three litre flush job? F p.s. Hmmm, it's only 08:30 on the first of January 2012 and yet again a thread starts to "go down the toilet...." (hem, hem). A record perhaps? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Jeez, remind me never to go out for a drink with you guys. I'd spend all night looking for you when it was your round.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldgunner Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 37% Not too bad, I'm not tight but I'm also not a complete idiot with money. My favourite is the dividing of restaurant bills, we always divide equally, cos its a pita otherwise. I've you've managed to squeeze in an extra pint on the bill, more power to you I say! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted January 1, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 1, 2012 Of course, to be really Scrooge like, chamber pots should be used and regularly emptied by throwing into the street (as they did in Georgian London) - total cost? £0.00! (might even be environmentally friendly as well ) The tied cottage where I was born had no bathroom, no mains drainage, so the only loo was external, an Elsan chemical toilet. Chamber pots were a way of life, therefore. These were ceremoniously emptied into a bucket each morning - and the resulting volume was gently strewn beneath Dad's blackcurrent bushes. Result? One year, Dad was awarded First Prize for blackcurrents at the Royal Horticultural Society Annual Show, Vincent Square SW1. Recycling does work! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted January 1, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 1, 2012 There was a chemical firm in Wakefield that collected prisoners urine from Wakefield prison about 500 chamberpots a day and turned it into ammonia and fertiliser and very profitable it was too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted January 1, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 1, 2012 Of course, to be really Scrooge like, chamber pots should be used and regularly emptied by throwing into the street (as they did in Georgian London) - total cost? £0.00! (might even be environmentally friendly as well ) Not a good idea as round here we get a rebate if we don't let our rainwater into the mains drainage (all ours goes to soakaway or the 1,000 gallon rainwater tank in the back garden) - saves us £21 per bill. And another rebate is available if you return less water to the sewage system than you take out of the water system - provided you can prove it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
moorlander Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Are we likely to see a return to "outside" toilets becoming fashion again. I have been to some country shows where you the toilet has been a piece of plastic piping. Certainly back to nature. I think the local council has become scrooges. In Yarm in Teesside, there is one public toilet open for the whole town to use during the day. I wonder if the proposed plans to introduce car-parking in the town will improve things. Not really though. My best or worst experience was in France during the solar eclipse in 1999. During totality, half the locals from this town hoofed down the local corn-field. It was like a mass exodus coming out of the football ground ! Needless to say, baguettes never taste the same now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 I'm surprised Boris hasn't contributed to the angle that this thread has taken..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debs. Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 The tied cottage where I was born had no bathroom, no mains drainage, so the only loo was external, an Elsan chemical toilet. Chamber pots were a way of life, "Luxury!" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Welly Posted January 1, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 1, 2012 Some more rural houses have cesspools - they simply fill up and you have to get the man with the smelly lorry round to take out 2000 gallons. The lorry is called the "Honeywagon" here - what's the French slang for such a lorry? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted January 1, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 1, 2012 The lorry is called the "Honeywagon" here - what's the French slang for such a lorry? Dunno - the man who empties ours is a farmer, so he turns up with a tractor and a slurry tank. He also seems to offer landscape gardening services. I'm not sure I want to know where the slurry goes..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Dunno - the man who empties ours is a farmer, so he turns up with a tractor and a slurry tank. He also seems to offer landscape gardening services. I'm not sure I want to know where the slurry goes..... It probably finds its way back into the local produce. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted January 1, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 1, 2012 My Aussie relatives have quoted the "if it's yellow...." mantra, so I think it's in widespread use there when water is severely restricted Living in South West Water territory, anything which reduces the bills is welcome (how come the water industry is privatised, but there's no ability to change providers & no competition? Sorry - slightly political...). I've been amazed how much we've saved going onto a meter - at least 40%, for a household with 2 children & a washing machine that rarely gets a day off. Oh, and I'm 42% tight (so 58% loose!) - but that question of re-boxing cheap items is silly, I just use cheaper stuff & keep it in the original packaging Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebottle Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 As a senior citizen now living alone, not flushing the toilet is rather more likely to be an inadvertent omission than one of policy. Yorkshire Water's estimate of my needs is six per day. As Grampa Simpson might remark: "Six flushes a day? How'm I supposed t' remember t' flush the john six times a day?" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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