Abstract
The objective of this project is to create a more eco-friendly bathroom for one of the Sanctuary's bathroom. This is accomplished by minimizing the water supply from a sink and instead, pumps clean water from the toilet to the sink. What makes this unique to the standard toilet to sink combinations is that the sink and toilet are placed like any ordinary bathroom would have them rather than replacing the top of the tank with a sink. Our project was made possible with the help of Humboldt state university’s ENGR 215 course, Intro to design supervised by Lonny Grafman.
- There should be an image near the top.
Background
In the fall semester of 2016, Team green-light was created through the ENGR 215 course, introduction to design, and was taught by Lonny Grafman at Humboldt State University. The sanctuary's CEO and founder are Solomon Lowenstein promotes: art, community involvement, green technology and sustainable living. The idea behind this project was to create an aesthetically pleasing bathroom that will inspire others to recreate the system in their own household. What makes this unique to the standard toilet to sink combinations is that the sink and toilet are placed like any ordinary bathroom would have them rather than replacing the top of the tank with a sink. This is to greatly encourage the use of this system in average households without having to completely rearrange the bathroom with a sink on top of the toilet.
Problem statement and criteria
The problem was to improve the previous bathroom, by reducing freshwater usage and inspiring people to reduce freshwater usage.
Criteria
Criteria | Importance |
---|---|
Safety | No harm to the user. |
Inspiration | Reduce the use of freshwater by signage and art. |
Cost | $100 max. |
Environmental Impact | Reduction in the water bill. |
Ease of Access | Nine-year-old child. |
Aesthetics | Must look better than the existing toilet |
Ease of Plumbing Maintenance | Fixed in <20 mins/year |
Description of final project
Photos and descriptions. Use gallery.
The toilet to sink freshwater system is designed to save the amount of water used in the bathroom. This is done by attaching the toilet tank's overflow fill tube with the sink's hot water supply line using vinyl tubing. This design uses PVC piping to reroute the water's drainage onto the overflow tube so that the used soapy water flows directly into the toilet bowl. The sink's water runs approximately 40 after the toilet is flushed which gives double the amount of time than the recommended 20 seconds according to the CDC. What makes this unique to the standard toilet to sink combinations is that the sink and toilet are placed like any ordinary bathroom would have them rather than replacing the top of the tank with a sink. {{copyedit| 40 what. use figures to reference different aspects of the design. Don't use abbreviations without explaining or having a link to the abbreviation. Include a how to use and maintain section. See the how to template below.
Costs
Use Help:Table_examples#Cost_Table.
Quantity | Material | Location | Full Price ($) |
---|---|---|---|
5 | PVC Plumbing | Ace Hardware | 9.90 |
1 | PVC Tubing | Ace Hardware | 2.00 |
1 | Nuts/Bolts | ACE Hardware | 4.00 |
1 | Masonry Sawzall blade | ACE Hardware | 30.00 |
1 | Masonry Bosch blade | ACE Hardware | 10.00 |
1 | Masonry angle grinder blade | ACE Hardware | 10.00 |
1 | Sink Drain | ACE Hardware | 17.00 |
1 | Angle Grinder | Donated | 0 |
1 | Hack Saw | Donated | 0 |
1 | Miscellaneous Tools | Donated | 0 |
Total Cost | $82.60 |
Testing Results
How to build
Use Template:How_to First, you have to disconnect the toilet and sinks water supply line located beneath. Next, you want to loosen and take off the sinks hot water supply for the next step. By replacing the overfill fill tube from the toilet's tank with a vinyl tubing, you can connect this to the sinks hot water supply with some clamps to ensure the tubing is watertight. Once this is accomplished, part of the toilets fresh water should flow through the sink when the toilet is flushed, meanwhile, the main fill valve fills the back of the toilet. Finally, to reuse the dispersed from the sink's faucet, you can connect a series of PVP pipings with the proper drop so that the water flows back into the overflow tube as originally designed where it sits in the toilet bowl.
Maintenance
Introduce this maintenance section.
Schedule
This is when to maintain what.
- Daily
- A daily task
- A daily task
- Weekly
- a weekly task
- a weekly task
- Monthly
- a monthly task
- a monthly task
- Yearly
- a yearly task
- a yearly task
- Every __ years
- task
- task
Instructions
This is how to maintain. The step by step how to template {{How to}} is most likely best for this part.
Troubleshooting
This is only how to troubleshoot basic operation. For complex issues, the solution might just say contact ________. It should be a table in this format:
Problem | Suggestion |
---|---|
Example issue | Example solution or suggestion |
Does not turn on | Make sure it is plugged in |
Another issue | Et cetera |
Discussion and next steps
References
See Help:Footnotes for more. Template:Reflist