I went through a period where I was under doctor’s orders to treat any fluid produced by my body as a biohazard. That meant any time I urinated I had to close the lid and flush twice. So yeah, there was no mellowing in that case.
The more it mellows, the more it smells, especially if you have a healthy diet. The person following has to deal with that smell which worsens the moment the water is agitated.
It’s also a breeding ground, so you’ll be cleaning much more frequently.
Only if your city has directed saving water in a drought scenario should you be not flushing your waste.
Increasing water efficiency is likely to result in reduced demand for water, with less water therefore flowing through drains and sewers. Some parties have suggested that this could lead to blockages, drainage problems and homes flooding due to backed up sewerage systems.
In Germany our toilets usually have two buttons, one for the yellow which flushes but with a lower amount of water and the bigger button for the big brown business and maximum water flow.
Depending where you live and depending on drought being a thing in your place of the world, using less water can have unwanted side effects:
backed sewerage systems
not enough water can lead to environmental problems if the sewage isn’t watered down enough for your sewage treatment plant to deal with it or if it goes straight to a river it is worse than with more water (that one is always really bad but definitely extremely worse with less water)
Yeah. Both the adult bedroom and the kids’ room are wall-to-wall sith the bathroom. We only flush poop during the night. When it’s daytime we flush away though.
Always flush. I don’t want to drop a log and have that piss water splash on to me. Not to mention that it just stains the bowl and sometimes smells. Just flush, cause if I see it’s not clear water, I’m going to flush anyway.
Flush. Your basic water usage is absolutely miniscule compared to what major companies use. I’ll start not-flushing the day they start doing things to minimize their own water waste. I’m taking my hour-long hot shower, too.
I get what you’re saying but if the whole population of where ever you are does the same, then the water usage would be huge. and not sure if you were joking but if not, what do you do the whole time in hour long showers, jesus ! haha
And I’m a woman with very thick, long hair. I wash it, condition it, mask it. I scrub the budding calluses on my feet and moisturize, then I shave most of my body.
Granted, hour-long showers only happen once a week, because I only wash my hair once a week, so my everyday showers are more like 30 min, but you’ll rip those hour-long ones away over my dead body.
tl;dr/conclusion: just flush your urine. this post isn’t accounting for the increased used of cleaning products caused by urine stains, so really all of these numbers are even lower than they appear. if you actually want to reduce carbon emissions and energy usage, your energy is better spent on political actions. and if you insist on reducing consumption, stop buying avocados and turn off your air conditioning - that’s gonna have magnitudes more of an effect than not flushing.
Let’s do the math. Average toilet uses about 1.6 gallons (0.00606 m³) of water per flush *ᵃ. Flushing doesn’t actually use energy, but it takes energy to both
1) treat the water before it gets to your house and
2) to pump that water to your house
It takes about 1 kWh to treat 1,000 gallons of water (3.785 m³) *ᵇ. That translates to about 0.0016 kWh per 1.6 gallons (0.00606 m³). So it takes 0.0016 kWh in order to treat the amount of water your toilet flushes in a single flush.
It takes about 3,300 kWh to pump 1 million gallons of water (3785 m³) *ᶜ. That translates to about 0.00528 kWh per 1.6 gallons (0.00606 m³). So it takes 0.00528 kWh in order to pump that 1.6 gallons (0.00606 m³) of water per flush.
If we add those two together, we get 0.00688 kWh needed to pump and treat the water every time you flush. Let’s try and put that amount of energy into reference.
Microwaves use about 1000 watts (1 kW) when running. Therefore, 0.00528 kWh could run a microwave for about 0.318 minutes (or about 19 seconds)
Computer Desktop: Assuming a desktop consumes around 400 watts, 0.00528 kWh would power it for roughly 0.0132 hours (or about 47 seconds)
Toasting Bread: A toaster might use around 1 kW of power. Therefore, 0.00528 kWh could power a toaster for about 0.32 minutes (around 19 seconds)
So, let’s see how much energy we would save if every single household in America flushed one time less per day. There are about 125.7 million households in the US *ᵈ. That would translate to about 864,816 kWh per day, assuming every household flushed exactly once less than they usually do. Let’s put that figure into reference.
In 2022 the total US consumption of electricity was 4,271.88 TWh *ᵉ which is about 11.7 billion kWh per day. This means that if everybody flushed one time less (meaning 864,816 kWh less), it would reduce total energy consumption by about 0.0074%.
Bitcoin globally consumes around 150 TWh per year *ᶠ, which translates to approximately 411 million kWh per day. 864,816 kWh represents about 0.21% of the total energy spent on Bitcoin mining per day.
Air conditioning consumes approximately 6% of the energy in the US *ᵍ. Since we know that total US consumption in a year is 4,271.88 TWh, that translates to about 702.23 million kWh per day. 864,816 kWh represents about 0.123% of the total energy spent on A/C per day.
I only see one argument for not flushing urine, and that’s for the environmental impact. However, you also must consider that not flushing urine will force you to clean the toilet more often as urine will stain the sides of the bowl. Without a detailed analysis we can’t know which one is worse for the environment, but personally I will always flush.
It takes next to no effort to flush and it keeps the bathroom cleaner.
First of all, if you can’t smell the uric acid and urea in piss, there’s probably something wrong with your nose.
Piss sitting in a bowl for hours will become really stinky later. When leaving the body of a healthy person, piss can be considered sterile. Once it’s exposed to air and sits in a bowl however, microorganisms will start living off of it and will reproduce, which alters it and often creates extra smells.
This has nothing to do with how much water you drink. It’s just because of urine is how the body gets rid off waste. There are spores in the air and bacteria clinging to difficult to reach areas of the bowl, as well as living in the pipes beyond it. Those will reach the bowl and find some of the waste can still nourish them.
K but if you’re drinking water regularly, you’re going to be peeing regularly. So you’re probably not leaving it to sit for hours. Flush every two pees and it’s no problem!
Piss smells when it has been sitting for hours and hours. If your piss is totally clear, you are over hydrated. You don’t need to be drinking an excessive amount of water unless you have particular needs. Normal urine should have a slight yellow tinge.
Just because you’ve gone nose blind to your piss filled toilet, doesn’t mean that people you have over will be. I had a grandfather that absolutely never flushed for urine and his place smelled disgusting whenever I would go for a visit.
Over hydrated? Not possible. I drink 4l a day and my piss is never yellow and doesn’t smell. If your piss is yellow, you need more water and less non water drinks like coffee, soda/pop.
Yup, it’s possible. You can fuck up your electrolyte balance by drinking excessive amounts of water.
Believe it or not, you can even die from drinking excessive amounts of water. It’s rare and you’d have to try pretty hard to do so, but it’s more than possible.
Excess of body water may also be a result of a medical condition or improper treatment; see “hyponatremia” for some examples. Water is considered one of the least toxic chemical compounds, with an LD50 exceeding 90 ml/kg in rats;[3] drinking six liters in three hours has caused the death of a human.[4]
For real. I have a pissoir in my garage that i don't use too often. Once my dad was over and used it and apparently didn't flush. I went in there a day or two later and it was full of murky brown-ish water that smelled absolutely disgusting. I know the last time he drank water was probably in 2006, but still
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