The toilets weren't planned. I had a major street-side clog Tuesday that flooded the downstairs bedroom/closet/bathroom, resulting in a broken toilet while trying to gain access to the drain to powersnake it all the way to the street.
I had already decided that I was one-day going to get a high tank toilet for the downstairs...I just didn't know it was going to be so soon.
There are a few reasons for this extravagance. One -- this thing is handmade here in California, and sold through a local restoration store on Elvas Ave. in Sacramento. I am employing a local woodworker, much like myself...that is...if I actually did that for a living instead of a hobby. Two -- "have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful" -- William Morris. I think this device satisfies both ideas.
That quote is something that I used to hold dearly, but over time I've lost much of that belief, what with the hub-bub of daily living; however, I am attempting to return to a housal unit worth living in. In much the same way I wish I had a neighborhood worth living in, too, but there's little I can personally do to change the arrangement I live in. What I can do is to maintain the exterior of my unit, to make it look nice, so that people who actually walk by recreationally have something to look at other than broken roof tiles and broom handles propping up fence panels. Or, as people visit, they'll have the enjoyment of pulling a handle on a ninety year old device.
I countered this new toilet with a dual-flush device to be installed in the upstairs bathroom. In 2009, my last visit to Germany, I remember wondering how to flush that damn toilet in the hotel room, but my mammalian curiosity quickly took hold and I discovered the low flow rate for liquids and higher flow rate for solids. Brilliant. Yet, as I scoured the usual places yesterday for a dual flush unit sold in the U.S. here mid-2011, I find only one dual flush model against forty other regular single flush units.
If we are so damn uptight about the conservation of resources these days, I wondered why I had to wait three years to see a dual flush unit even show up for sale here in this country. I wonder why, if we're mandating the use of CFLs, why we don't also mandate that 50%+ of all toilets sold be dual-flush, saving scores of billions of gallons each year, water that requires heroic inputs of energy to treat, distribute, and then just flush away.
Nope. I guess smart-shitter doesn't roll off the tongue nearly as neatly as smart grid, and indeed, because smart-shitters won't cost billions to develop the infrastructure as will the smart grid, they don't empower anyone such as a local electric utility. I've maintained that the smart grid is all about expanding the role the electric utility has in providing that service; only secondarily does it have to do with expanding the role the consumer has in accessing their electricity. It will cost billions and save billions, nothing gained, except that Silver Springs Networks and the like will employ thousands of IT professionals needed to manage the smart grid. No IT guy will be needed for a smart-shitter; no corporation will need to wirelessly access your water closet. As dual flush toilets don't require the enabling of companies like Google or Trilliant or GE to develop such things as home-area-networks to enable smart dishwashers and the like, they aren't mandated by law like CFLs and smart meters are...at least not yet.
Nonetheless, I didn't have the opportunity to buy a high-tank/dual-flush unit. Someday I might be able to, but I'm not crossing my legs waiting.
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