Tiny houses are not only cute, but they are also innovative. Until now, many are still baffled on how things on tiny houses work. You see, it’s not simply shrinking your living space and removing the stuff you don’t use. It is actually figuring out a way to live in a small space comfortably. You figure out where all the basic and even luxurious things go.
One of the things that many people ask about when it comes to tiny houses is the toilet. Living in a tiny house doesn’t mean you have to give up the luxury of using a toilet or your dream bathroom. In fact, many tiny homes use the same toilets other homes use. However, due to the limited space and the living conditions, you may want other options when it comes to toilets for tiny homes.
We are glad to tell you that there are actually multiple options when it comes to tiny house toilets. You can choose to have any of the following:
- Regular Flush Toilet
- Macerating Toilet
- Dry Flush Toilet
- Composting Toilet
- Incinerating Toilet
Which Type Of Toilet Should I Choose
To help you choose which type of toilet to use in your tiny home, we will discuss each type and tell you what they are good for as well as what they aren’t suitable for.
Regular Flush Toilet
This type of toilet is what you usually see every house. It needs to be permanently hooked up to a water source and a septic or sewer system. If your tiny home sits on a permanent location and there’s a water and septic system it can connect to, this is a great toilet to use. If you are new to tiny home, you wouldn’t need to adjust using the toilet with this. There are lots of brands and the toilet comes in different sizes so you’ll be able to find one that perfectly fits your bathroom.
Macerating Toilet
Compared to other types of toilets, this is much similar to the regular flush toilet. The difference is the grinding of the waste. Instead of ending up with urine and solid waste, this type of toilet will macerate those and leave you with a liquid slurry of waste that is much easier to store or pump out.
In order for macerating toilets to work, it needs to be connected to a waterline and a power source. This only requires smaller pipes and feels just like using a regular flush toilet. This is great for people who choose to live off the grid. Also, it is best installed by a professional to make sure it works properly.
Dry Flush Toilet
With a dry flush toilet, connecting to a waterline isn’t a requirement. With this, the toilet will be lined and once you “flush” the toilet, no water is released and the liner wraps around the waste material instead. Once you run out of liners, you can refill it and the waste wrapped with the liners can be thrown out just like used diapers.
This type of toilet requires electricity to power it up. It is best for tiny houses that tend to move around where it can’t be hooked up to a water line or a septic system.
Composting Toilet
With composting toilets, you turn your waste into compost which you can use for your plants. However, before you get this kind of toilet, first make sure that a human waste composting system is allowed in your locality.
Turning the waste into compost is done by allowing natural bacteria to break down the waste. There are a few requirements to make this system work. First is the ventilation, which helps the aerobic process to start working in breaking down the waste. Next is a urine separator. Urine is separated from solid waste because it has high water content.
Lastly, coconut husks, sawdust, or other bulking materials are also needed to speed up the decomposition process. They also help beneficial bacteria to grow and decrease the growth of harmful bacteria as well.
There are two types of composting toilets, the first is a slow composting one and the other is a commercial active composting toilet. The slow composting toilets are as simple as a huge bucket with a toilet seat. For tiny houses, this would mean manually bagging the waste and moving it in a compost pile. This system produces a foul odor especially when it isn’t completely sealed.
However, there are also active composting toilets that have sealed canisters as the composting chamber. They also come with the ventilation system and urine separator so the waste is designed to break down in the system. These are better than the slow composting toilets but are expected to be very expensive.
Incinerating Toilets
This kind of toilet that is mostly used in cabins found in remote areas. With this, the waste is disposed of instantly by burning them. After using the toilet, you’d have to seal the lid then press a button or use your foot to activate it. It burns everything in the toilet and would result to sterile ash. The burning waste scent isn’t noticeable because recent advancements have properly sealed the units to avoid the odor from escaping during the process.