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AccessoriesYear-around Composting Toilets
Toilets of Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring
Year-around Composting Toilets
When considering the year-round use of a compost toilet, the focus naturally shifts to the challenges posed by the colder winter months. While summer use is generally straightforward, it’s the winter season that raises the most questions. Ensuring that your compost toilet can handle the demands of a cold climate is crucial for year-round usability. Factors such as capacity and the ability to service the toilet at any time become important.
When it comes to using a compost toilet in cold climates, it’s essential to understand the differences between having the toilet in a cabin where the temperature drops below freezing but is not used, and using the toilet everyday all year round, including during the winter. Let’s delve into these scenarios to help you make the best decision for your needs.
If the composting toilet is used only occasionally throughout the year, even in winter, it usually means that there is less waste going into the toilet. This could be for example in a weekend use cabin that is visited intermittently throughout the year.
In this case, it might be possible to avoid having to service the composting toilet in winter when it’s freezing by focusing the service procedure to spring and late fall times of the year. The solid waste requires certain amount of time to fully compost. Due to colder winter months, the composting process is usually done only after the summer in Northern parts of the U.S. Thus, if a batch composting toilet, like the GL 90 or Oz-e-Pod, is used, it might be beneficial to have 2-3 composting containers in total.
Storing the Toilet in Cold Conditions
If the composting toilet will be stored in a cold space and not used during the winter, it typically poses no problems. In fact, a composting toilet can make winter much easier for cabin owners by eliminating the risk of broken pipes and the need to heat the cottage just to keep a water closet functional. Simply ensuring the system is clean and dry before winter prevents issues.
Hybrid Solutions for Occasional Use
For many cabins and cottages, a hybrid solution works best. This involves having an outhouse equipped with a large-capacity composting toilet system used extensively during the summer when outdoor activities are prevalent. Complementing this setup with a smaller indoor compost toilet provides convenience during the winter and bad weather. This dual approach ensures that you have a reliable and comfortable toilet solution year-round.
In case the composting toilet is used everyday throughout the year, it is likely that more capacity is required for solids. In practice, this means either larger and/or more composting containers or a separate outdoor compost bin into which the composting toilet’s smaller compost bins are regularly emptied. Different homes have different kind of structure. If there is clear underfloor space, we highly recommend leveraging that and getting a split-system composting toilet, because they generally have much greater capacity compared to self-contained composting toilets.
