81–90 of 156 posts
Large, old cities already have problems with their waste canals clogging because modern toilets and showers use too little water. I wonder how this can be solved in the future, perhaps by coating the canal as well?
Hi Everyone! Birgitt here from spotLESS Materials -- we are commercializing this technology and some of the authors of the Nature Sustainability paper are part of our team. I'll try answering some of the questions I'm seeing. Would love to hear your feedback! Check out our products at: https://www.spotlessmaterials.com/shop Check out the full research article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0421-0#ci…
So why doesn't the coating, if it is made of silicone, similarly degrade in 4-7 days?
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Something I have wondered a couple times when this comes up: When people say "Water bill", do they mean solely water, or water + sewer? Where I live, the two are bundled, and the total bill is also higher than our internet bill. (~$100 for water vs $75 for internet) I live in Iowa, which doesn't have Great Lakes levels of water lying around, but we also have no shortage of the stuff.
Some people (those who own wells) don't have real "water bills" at all and are actually referring to a portion of their electric bill corresponding to the well pump usage when they say "water bill". (Depending on well depth and usage patterns, this may or may not be a significant portion of the power bill.)
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Honestly, I do. I've placed a bucket in the sink to capture waste water from washing hands, which is then reused for flushing the toilet after depositing... liquid contents in it. It saves a bit off the water bill and also made me realize just how much water I use up when washing hands... Of course I hide the bucket when guests come, it's too weird a thing - but in all honesty, I've wished many times for a system for…
You can put a small sump pump with a pressure switch in the bucket, and an overflow setup back into the normal drain. This way when the toilet flushes, the sump will kick on and fill the toilet and keep pressure on the water line feeding it. Any excess sink water will overflow out the upper hose on the bucket and go into the normal drain.
Large, old cities already have problems with their waste canals clogging because modern toilets and showers use too little water. I wonder how this can be solved in the future, perhaps by coating the canal as well?
Surprisingly, at the same time they often outlaw channeling rainwater (coming down from the roof) into the wastewater system, although that seems to be a solution to several problems at once.
Hi Everyone! Birgitt here from spotLESS Materials -- we are commercializing this technology and some of the authors of the Nature Sustainability paper are part of our team. I'll try answering some of the questions I'm seeing. Would love to hear your feedback! Check out our products at: https://www.spotlessmaterials.com/shop Check out the full research article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0421-0#ci…
Hi Everyone! Birgitt here from spotLESS Materials -- we are commercializing this technology and some of the authors of the Nature Sustainability paper are part of our team. I'll try answering some of the questions I'm seeing. Would love to hear your feedback! Check out our products at: https://www.spotlessmaterials.com/shop Check out the full research article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0421-0#ci…
Permanent nanohairs sounds very ... permanent, if this doesn't work well without layer 2.
I'm also curious about durability on a car, with windshield wipers and all. How permanent is permanent?
I'll mention:
1) The price and quantity is a little bit off-putting. I'm not sure if that represents real costs (for many business models, the cost is a pennies, but the price goes way up to account for R&D, shipping, marketing, etc.). If this is expensive to produce, keep things as is. If it's dirt cheap, you may consider keeping price fixed, but notching up quantity a bit. If I can coat my whole car (rather than just windshield), or sink+toilet rather than just toilet, or even share with a friend, the economics become very different.
2) You really need online reviews. Few will risk a product like this unseen. Use Amazon or send review copies to someone.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people (those who own wells) don't have real "water bills" at all and are actually referring to a portion of their electric bill corresponding to the well pump usage when they say "water bill". (Depending on well depth and usage patterns, this may or may not be a significant portion of the power bill.)
We had a well growing up, and I think we always just considered the water free. Though we did have a water softener, so I suppose there was the cost of salt for that. Similar to water heating though, I think we didn't really factor that into the cost of the water.
So in some regions pulling water from wells will be perfectly sustainable and essentially free, while in others it's unsustainable and expensive.
Hi Everyone! Birgitt here from spotLESS Materials -- we are commercializing this technology and some of the authors of the Nature Sustainability paper are part of our team. I'll try answering some of the questions I'm seeing. Would love to hear your feedback! Check out our products at: https://www.spotlessmaterials.com/shop Check out the full research article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0421-0#ci…
I think I'd like to know how this does without the second layer. Reapplying every 500 flushes doesn't seem practical. For a family of four and two toilets, if everyone goes four times a day, you're talking about reapplying every 2 months. Permanent nanohairs sounds very ... permanent, if this doesn't work well without layer 2. I'm also curious about durability on a car, with windshield wipers and all. How permanent i…
I think it depends on how exactly one applies it. If it’s just pouring something from a bottle over the bowl, it is perfectly practical, as this is already what one usually does when cleaning the toilet.
Hi Everyone! Birgitt here from spotLESS Materials -- we are commercializing this technology and some of the authors of the Nature Sustainability paper are part of our team. I'll try answering some of the questions I'm seeing. Would love to hear your feedback! Check out our products at: https://www.spotlessmaterials.com/shop Check out the full research article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0421-0#ci…
I have been dealing with neck/mouth cancer for a while and using a feeding tube for about half of my calories. My movements, depending on the alignment of the stars resemble the mortar used to join cinder blocks together. It is explosive and sticks to the bowl. I can flush ten times and it doesn't budge and I have to manually get in there.
So I am going to try this. It is cheap enough and even if it helps a little will be a huge quality of life improvement.
Three months into chemo it wasn't great dealing with every trip to the bathroom being a chore. And combine that with the fact that my immune system was basically non-existent. Lingering fecal matter was a health risk.
You might want to consider marketing to radiologists, oncologists, and nutritionists. Tons of fellow tubers out there.