WaterConsNYC’s Recent Comments

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  I think you're making completely no-water sanitary waste disposal, particularly in urban or suburban areas seem a bit easier than it actually is. If you live in New York and would like to see no-water disposal in action by people who have experience with all kinds of poop, visit the new comfort station near the Bronx River Parkway entrance to the Bronx Zoo. Their old facility drained to a septic system that was deemed inadequate. It was either run a new sewer line more than a quarter of a mile or go waterless. Being the Wildlife Conservation Society they turned the whole thing into an educational experience.On Ask Umbra's video advice on saving money (and water) in the toilet posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago 12 Responses

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  The current Federal standard is 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm).  There are standard showerheads available at 2.2 gpm, 2.0 gpm and as low as 1.0 gpm.  The US EPA's WaterSense program, which is the current standard-setter for water-efficient but well-performing equipment ( www.epa.gov/watersense ) is working on a voluntary standard that will have a lower flow rate but probably also specific showerhead design features.  Showering is very subjective and what actual flow you'll get from a showerhead depends in part on water pressure.  "Pressure compensating" showerheads deliver the same flow over a relatively wide pressure range.  Personally, I use a handheld showerhead.  It delivers water directly to your body instead of having much of the water miss your body and so lets you use a lower flow rate head and get the job done efficiently.  Second, they come with all kinds of useful and fun massager settings.

   

  On Ask Umbra's video advice on showering posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago 10 Responses

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  My ever-growing crush on Umbra has only been increased by the best description of a a septic system ever, including the evocative "greasy residues providing an icing atop it all."  As usual, the analysis is spot-on although in places with sewers the issue is little bit more complicated.  I work for a major eastern US city that sits at the mouth of a river and has two baseball teams.  Disposals were largely illegal there for years due to concerns about the sludge blocking sewers and increased Biological Oxygen Demand resulting in increased nitrogen inputs to receiving waters.  The sanitation folks, OTOH, were concerned about mandates to implement high-rise urban composting and their perception of the joy that would bring to our local arthropod and rodent residents. For them, disposals meant sending food waste to wastewater treatment plants where the sludge would end up as compost, fulfilling the original recycling mandate without bugs and rats.  Since even with a 25% reduction in water use since 1990 our wastewater is still relatively dilute, the BOD issue was argued to be secondary.  Our studies showed that while medium-scale use of disposals would not have significant wastewater impacts, greater implementation levels would result in unacceptable nitrogen inputs.  In any case, in dense cities with sewers the issue has another dimension or two.

   

   

  On Ask Umbra on food disposal posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago 3 Responses

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  Good question and great answer. Do consider taking the flag down every day. I think that some nationalistic practices are a bit excessive but if you look upon the flag as a symbol of what is great about this country, raising and lowering the flag each day, while a bit of work, provides a contemplative moment for these issues. As a former Boy Scout I can say that the folks who were chosen for flag raising and lowering duties or ceremonies always considered it an honor.

  OK, maybe not when it was sleeting. But then while I am anti-nationalist by nature, I also get misty any time the Gettysburgh Address is read. Go figure.

  On Ask Umbra on flag flying posted 6 months, 1 week ago 1 Response

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  A Few More Notes on Setback

  Pangolin, your point is well taken but the temperatures at which mold production condensation will occur are usually 50 F/10C or lower.
  Myrtoashe, I've seen the same kind of data but in the US and Canada where we almost always have central heating elderly folks with circulation problems and who sense "cold" more than folks without such problems are not likely to set their temperatures back so far. It does raise a point of whether housing regulations in northern cities that may allow landlords to set overnight temperatures back to 55F/12C are going too far. New York apartment buildings, usually with steam heating systems, are notoriously overheated.
  Swolpow and Jwebb, the issue has been around for 30 years. Oak Ridge's Energy Analysis unit did major studies in the 1980's and ACEEE and ASHRAE have published a lot of technical papers on night setback.  There's lots of data and i provided a link to one of the more recent, heavily instrumented studies performed by the Canadian housing folks, who generally do very good work.  The more that temperature is setback, the greater the savings but in reality unless you're in a very cold climate or have insufficient thermal integrity, most homes will not get down to 50F/10C.  So you may set the temperature at 50F/10C but your saving won't be any different than setting it at 55F if the temperature never goes below that.  Further, temperatures of 50F or below are probably lower than most people will find comfortable.   If it's taking you several hours (as opposed to two) to bring your home back up to 68F/20C then you have significant thermal envelope problems.
  Yes, heat pumps behave differently but only a tiny fraction of North Americans have heat pumps and most of them are in the southern portion of the US.  Air-source heat pumps are for homes with moderate heating loads since they turn into electric resistance heaters under 35F/2C.
  Personally, I strongly recommend a programmable thermostat set for your general lifestyle and not to manually set and reset the thermostat. There are two reasons for this: 1) you have to get up at 4 am to reset the thermostat at the coldest point of the night, which is even worse than my cat getting me up at that hour to feed her, and 2) if I set back a thermostat while I go out for only an hour or two there's a good chance I'll forget to reset it when I return.  On Umbra on turning down the heat posted 11 months ago 21 Responses