What should a toilet light look like in the 21st century?

Previously, it was generally accepted that light in the toilet was sufficiently provided by one small light bulb, turned on from the outside by pressing the appropriate switch. But it’s already 2016 and I personally decided to keep up with the times, using modern technological advances. I will tell you further what came out of this.

Selecting and installing a light source

The wall lamp, sadly sticking out from the ceiling, consisting of one incandescent light bulb, has probably been in every toilet of multi-storey buildings, and has remained in some to this day. At least, that’s how it was for me before I took up reforms.

This option was considered optimal for the bathroom, which is absolutely not true, which I will now prove to you:

Debunking myths

Myth one - saving. The fact is that visits to the toilet are not very frequent and short-term, so it has practically no impact on your family’s budget;

Myth two – no need for brighter light. Like: “What is there that needs to be considered?” But in general, being in a cramped space, shrouded in twilight, has a very negative impact on a person’s mental state, up to the risk of claustrophobia.

And if an adult is quite capable of enduring such conditions, albeit without much comfort, then if there are children in the apartment, it is better not to risk their health and mental state.

Advantages of LED spotlights

So, based on the above, what should a lamp for the toilet look like? I won’t languish for a long time, I gave my preference to LED spot models for the following reasons:

Economical energy consumption. Even understanding that the light in the bathroom is rarely turned on, you still want to make it more economical, such is human nature, and the lighting devices in question cope with this task quite successfully;
Quite bright, but not cutting, emitted light. Four lamps installed in the corners immersed my toilet in a soft and all-encompassing glow, excluding any depressive mood;

Simple hidden installation easy to do with your own hands. Fortunately, I sewed up the ceiling a little earlier plastic panels, so all that remains to be done, essentially, is to cut out the seats for the device sockets in them and extend the wiring to them from the location of the old light bulb. I will describe this process in more detail below;
High level of protection against higher level humidity. Of course, the toilet is not as damp as the bathroom, but still an extra precaution won’t hurt, and owners of shared bathrooms need to be as careful as possible in this matter.

Current offers

Before you install LED lamp, you need to buy it. I will give the characteristics of some models along with their cost so that you can get your bearings:

Model “011278 Piano ip mini”:

Model "A601 W Ambrella":

Model "006410 MEDUSA CR":

As you can see, the price mostly fluctuates depending on the shape of the lamp. But here it is advisable to do it anyway emphasis primarily on the moisture resistance of the device, and not on its originality.

Installation of spotlight

Above, I already noted the ease of installation of spotlights, now I will describe in more detail how I did it:

By inserting a crown of suitable diameter into cordless screwdriver, I drilled a hole in plastic ceiling at a pre-designated place;

Through the hole made got the right wire, having previously de-energized the electrical network;

If you cannot reach the cable by hand, then use a piece of wire bent into a hook for this purpose. This device will easily fit into a standard mortise hole.

Further connected the wires to the lighting fixture itself;

Then inserted the lamp into the prepared seat and fixed it with special springs;

Final action put on decorative protection;
Turned on the power to check performance of the lighting device, then turned it off again and moved on to the next point.

If your bathroom is spacious enough to hold a mirror in it, then installing LEDs in its frame would be a very interesting option. This move looks simply amazing, but in my apartment the toilet is standard small sizes, so I couldn't implement it.

Automation of light switching

So, in the end, after everything described, I received modern, economical, abundant, but not harsh on the eyes, lighting. If your apartment or private house layout also includes a small toilet, then I think four point light sources will be enough for you, although their number can be increased or decreased depending on the situation.

But this is not all that a bathroom of today should have. Automatic backlighting is what I decided to implement next. For what? Now I’ll explain everything:

Benefits of automatic lighting

Tangible energy savings. Yes, yes, yes, I wrote at the very beginning that staying in the toilet is not so long that the light bulb has time to “wind” a lot, but this is only if you turned on the light, went in, dealt with all the things, went out and turned it off his.
What if, suddenly, they forgot to turn it off, which especially often happens with children who are always in a hurry to get somewhere? Then the lighting fixture can burn unnecessarily for a very long time, “burning” your money. Automation completely eliminates this problem;
Ease of use. You don’t need to press anything, you don’t need to reach anywhere, you just need to enter. Not only is this simply convenient, especially, again, for the youngest members of the family, but it also eliminates the possibility of accidentally turning off the light outside; many people have probably experienced such an unpleasant incident more than once at the most unfortunate moment.

Sensor selection

Automatically turning on the light in the toilet can be done by connecting one of three types of sensors:

Sound. It is activated by sound, which is usually set between 40-50 dB, which corresponds to clapping your hands. It has two regulators on the case, one of which is responsible for the level of noise closing the contacts, and the second for the duration of the period when the device is turned on.
Sold in a variety of variations, which will allow you to easily choose the most suitable model for your toilet. Their price starts approximately from 350 rubles.

Plus: the ability to set it to turn off, that is, the second clap will bring darkness. Sensors operating on other principles must withstand the set circuit closure cycle.

Disadvantage: short range, requiring close proximity to the device. And if you use a hypersensitive model, then false inclusions from extraneous noise will become more frequent;

Ultrasonic. It is very small in size, making it easy to camouflage, and high speed triggering. The principle of operation is that the device propagates ultrasonic waves with a length of 20-60 kHz, the intersection of which, due to the Doppler effect, causes the circuit to close. The cost of such a device also starts from about 350 rubles.

Infrared. The presence sensor has a lens system that focuses infrared radiation, directing it to a special highly sensitive sensor. When the radiation force reaches a certain intensity, as occurs due to the appearance of a person in the controlled area, a circuit closure is triggered, which lasts for some time. The cost of such devices is already somewhat higher, since they start from 600 rubles.

The downside is the frequent false positives that can occur due to various temperature changes resulting, for example, from turning on hot water or air conditioner operation.

I chose a motion sensor for my toilet, working due to the propagation of ultrasonic waves. By the way, you can even immediately buy an LED lamp with a built-in system, although it will cost much more. So, for example, the “IEK 3237D” model shown below will cost you around 1,700 rubles:

Same connection process after I've practiced with myself lighting fixtures, was not difficult. For you, I also provided auxiliary diagrams above. In a nutshell, it’s simple you need to connect the purchased device to the circuit between the power source and the lamps.

By the way, you can even make music play in the toilet when you turn on the lights, but this is absolutely not for everybody, since many people prefer to “think” in silence.

Conclusion

You can improve the toilet lighting system in two stages. The first step is to replace the old light source with lamps that better meet the needs of today's consumer, for which I chose spotlight LED models. The second is to automate their work by connecting a special sensor; an ultrasonic device handled this task perfectly. As a result, the whole family is happy with the bright and “smart” bathroom.

Often the first thing a person thinks about after purchasing a plot of land is: how to make a simple outdoor toilet in a dacha with your own hands and ready-made drawings will come in handy here, as well as detailed description all stages of construction, tips and nuances.

One of the most important and vital buildings in a country house or garden plot is the toilet. The need for a simple structure arises within a few hours of arrival. And even if the owners already have a bathroom in cozy house, street amenities will never be superfluous.

It’s easy to build a toilet in a summer cottage with your own hands

The simplicity of the design allows even a person without much construction experience to equip a toilet for their dacha with their own hands. And if you use your imagination, then a house for thinking about

will fit perfectly into the design of the site and, perhaps, even become its decoration.

What kind of toilet to build: types and features

Actually, there are only two options here: with or without a cesspool.

A toilet with a cesspool is a simple structure, proven by experience and time, which consists of an equipped cesspool and a toilet house above it. As the pit is filled with sewage, it is cleaned out manually or a sewer truck is ordered.
And sometimes they simply move the house to another place. The old pit is buried, and after 6-7 years its contents will finally rot and you can put the toilet back again.

Backlash closet - a type outdoor toilet with a pit for sewage, but with the difference that it must be sealed. Such a toilet has to be built if it is located close to a house, a water source, or when groundwater lie high.

Diagram: how the backlash closet works

A toilet without a cesspool or a powder closet is installed if the groundwater is very high or if the toilet is rarely used. IN in this case the container for collecting sewage can be anything except a pit (bucket, barrel, plastic tank). The required volume determines the intensity of use of the bathroom.

After each trip to such a toilet, sewage is sprinkled with dry peat, sometimes sawdust or ash is used, so the house should have a box for “masking powder”. After filling, the container is removed manually and the contents are evacuated to compost pit. If the sewage has been sprinkled with peat, then after a while it becomes a wonderful fertilizer.

Toilet without a cesspool (powder closet)

Important! If groundwater lies below 2.5 meters, any type of toilet can be built, but if it is located higher, then a cesspool will have to be abandoned.

Where to build a toilet

For toilets with a cesspool, there are a number of sanitary and hygienic standards and restrictions, which determine their location on the site.
Minimum distances from the toilet to other objects:

To water sources (wells, boreholes, lakes, rivers) – 25 m;
To houses, cellars - 12 m;
Before summer shower or baths - 8 m;
To the nearest tree – 4 m, and to the bushes – 1 m;
To fences - at least 1 m.

Scheme: correct location toilet relative to other buildings on the dacha plot

Important! When choosing a construction site, it is worth considering not only objects located on own plot, and also those located on the neighboring one.

So that summer evenings on the terrace are not spoiled by the amber, the place is chosen taking into account the wind rose. If the site is located on a slope, it is better to install the toilet at the lowest point.

Construction of a cesspool

After selecting and preparing the site, they begin to dig cesspool. As a rule, she square shape, at least 2 meters deep.
There are two types of cesspool:

Sealed. The bottom of such a pit is concreted, reinforced before pouring, and to prevent the reinforcement from sinking in the concrete, it is placed on pegs. The walls are also sealed, puttied with mortar or the seams covered with bitumen.

Sealed pit latrine

Absorbing. It is better to dig such a hole down to the sand, then the liquid fraction of sewage will quickly sink into the ground. The bottom is covered with a layer of coarse crushed stone or pebbles.

Absorption cesspool design

There are several ways to strengthen the walls of a cesspool:

Brickwork;
Concrete structure;
Ready iron concrete rings;
Plastic tank.

The pit is covered from above, with beams, slate or concrete, leaving only the area under the toilet seat open, and they begin to assemble the toilet house.

Construction of a toilet house

The optimal dimensions of a country toilet are 1×1.5 m, height – 2.2-2.5 m. Otherwise, it will simply be inconvenient, especially for people with large figures. It is not necessary to make drawings of the toilet yourself, if not special requirements and ideas you can use ready-made ones.
First of all, the diagram is convenient in that it allows you to correctly calculate the amount of building materials and preliminary cost courtyard bathroom.

Construction of a toilet over a cesspool (proper placement diagram)

Frame base

It is recommended to move the toilet house 2/3 forward above the cesspool, thus providing access for cleaning behind the rear wall of the structure.
The stability of the building can be ensured by a shallow foundation. Between it and the frame, waterproofing is laid, 1-2 layers of roofing felt. But for light construction made of wood it is not at all necessary. It is enough to install the base on concrete blocks.
You can also put four supporting pillars. To do this, four holes with a depth of about 60 cm are dug in the corners of the future structure, up to 1 meter in soft soils, and they are lowered into them. asbestos pipes. The hole is filled one third of the way cement mortar. After this, a support beam is installed in the pipe, and the hole is completely filled with concrete.

Installing the toilet base on concrete blocks

Frame assembly

To build a frame, beams with a cross section of 50×50 or 80×80 mm will be sufficient; it is not advisable to take larger material.

First, assemble a rectangular support with a jumper from which the front wall of the toilet seat will rise, and screw it to the foundation or support posts. A board is laid on top. The thickness of the floor board must be at least 3 cm.

Construction wooden frame for the toilet

The frame of the front, rear and side walls is assembled from timber. In this case, the front wall should be at least 10 cm higher than the back wall, this will ensure required slope roofs.
For greater structural strength, it is recommended to make diagonal jibs on the side and rear walls.
On the front wall, be sure to make a reinforcement for the door of the appropriate size and make a hole for the window.
The wall frames are fixed to the base metal corners, a harness is made on top and at the level of the toilet seat.

Strengthening the toilet frame with metal corners

The next step will be to assemble the toilet seat frame and cover it, if alternative options are not provided, for example, a floor-standing toilet.

Frame covering

Sheathing the frame wooden planks. The vertical arrangement allows you to significantly save material, and the horizontal one imitates a log house and looks more interesting. The boards are tightly fitted to each other and attached to the base. Instead of wood, corrugated sheets, slate or any other material that matches the construction budget are also used.

Toilet frame trim

Advice! All wooden elements It is advisable to treat the structures with a special antibacterial impregnation, which will protect the material from moisture and pests, and then cover it with varnish or paint

Roof

The roof should not protrude beyond the walls by more than 30 cm. Installation begins by securing parallel boards at a short distance. After this, the visor is sewn up from below, and boards are attached to the outside around the perimeter. A layer of waterproofing is laid on the prepared base, usually roofing felt, after which the structure is covered with any roofing material(slate, metal profile, bitumen shingles).

For a toilet, erecting a simple flat roof is enough

Summer residents who are not satisfied with the standard house layout can look for drawings that are more interesting options, make it yourself or purchase ready-made toilet houses, they are assembled like a designer, and for convenience they are necessarily accompanied by instructions and all the accompanying drawings.

Exhaust ventilation

Exhaust ventilation in a country toilet is a pipe that removes odors from the cesspool. Its lower edge is inserted into the hole, and the upper edge should rise above the roof by at least 20 cm.

Ventilation of a country toilet

A plastic pipe with a diameter of 100 millimeters is suitable for arranging ventilation. She is attracted to back wall from internal or outside structures and fixed with iron clamps. To increase traction, a deflector attachment is installed on the head.

Installing a toilet door

Doors are installed using ordinary wooden, ready-made plastic or home-made ones, from the material with which the frame was sheathed. Hang the door on 2 hinges. In principle, the closing method can be any, traditionally it is a latch, latch or hook, outside and inside. It is better to avoid more sophisticated locking systems, for example, with latches, since their mechanism will be exposed to moisture and will quickly rust.

Two hinges are enough to install the door

Lighting

For more comfortable operation of amenities, it is better to take care of their lighting in advance. This could be a wall lantern that is battery powered. As an option, you can install electrical wiring and connect a small lighting fixture.

Lighting options for a country toilet

And to illuminate during the day inner space there will be a small window. It is usually cut out above the doors or at the top of the door, but there are actually more options, from figured windows on the walls to a transparent roof.

Advice! A cesspool will last longer if you don’t throw it in toilet paper and other hygiene or household supplies, so there must be a bucket in the toilet. If the size allows, it is convenient to install a regular washbasin with a hanging spout here, especially since the rowing pit is already ready.

Powder closet: construction features

The absence of a cesspool is the main difference in construction. But there are some differences in the design of the house. You will have to think about a way to remove the container in which the sewage is collected.

Scheme: powder closet device

The door is usually equipped on the back wall of the house or the front wall of the toilet seat. Inside the cabin there is a special box for peat (ash, sawdust). It’s also impossible to do without ventilation here, only the pipe is not lowered into the hole, but directly under the toilet seat.

Why I love programming: I wrote the code and it always works. I like this “set it and forget it” concept. That’s why I’m becoming more and more interested in solar-powered devices. Solar cell+ battery - and some craft will work almost forever. For example, the same remote sensor of a weather station, or some kind of telemetry in a garden. As a full-scale experiment showed, even a small 6V solar battery can charge a 3.7-volt battery without being directly irradiated sunlight. And when the right approach to energy saving, that little energy is enough to survive until the next morning.

In general, as planned in the article linked above, I made an autonomous lamp for the country WC. Already working more than a year, no problem. The basis is a Chinese LED round lamp, like this:
Power supply: 3 AAA batteries, 1000 mAh each. In parallel with the Bezov charge controllers, a 6V solar battery is turned on. That's the whole story.

You can buy cheap batteries in China, it costs 20 rubles per 1 Watt*hour, and if you take 20 pcs, then it costs 13.6 rubles per 1 Wh*hour. But most of all I liked this option: as much as 6A*h in one battery. Of course, you can’t insert it into this lamp; you’ll have to build something yourself, but the price! Only 2.6 rubles per 1 Wh.

Out of curiosity, I compared the capacity/price ratio of a set of such batteries with a conventional car battery. From the Chinese, if you buy in bulk, it usually comes out even cheaper. So there were 5 lots of 8 batteries (3.7V 6A*h) - 888 Wh. Translated into car battery capacity, this is 888 / 12 - 74A*h. And for the price - in China 1950 rubles, but in Russia you still have to look for such a capacious battery for this money. The best offer on the Yandex market is 66A/h for 1950 rubles.

A 6V solar battery for charging 3 1.2V batteries in series is just right (you can even do without a charge controller). The Chinese write this, for example, “6V 0.33A 2W mini solar panels small solar power 3.6v battery charge”, i.e. 6V solar battery to charge 3.6V battery.

I have something like this, but 2 times weaker, and even in the shade of trees.

Many of us, with the onset of warm spring days, begin trips to the countryside and spend the whole weekend before the onset of cold weather, and spend the holidays there.

And it just so happens that everyone’s working day ends approximately the same way and all summer residents also equally stand in traffic jams to get to their favorite vacation spot. By the time you get to the dacha, it may already be dark. Someone arrives at the dacha and immediately goes to bed, someone else wants to relax in the company of relatives or friends with a glass of beer and a skewer of juicy shish kebab, but sooner or a little later they are faced with a natural physiological need and begin to look in the dark for where they are. a place where you can relieve yourself. And after a successful search, they find the same dark toilet in the dark, which is not very comfortable to be in.

To light a country toilet, you don’t need to be an electrician and there is absolutely no need to run wires, install switches, or hide all the wires in corrugation or metal fireproof tubes. Everything is much simpler, more interesting and convenient.

To illuminate a toilet in a country house, it is quite enough to use solar-powered lamps. They are either hung on a hook or placed directly on the floor indoors, and the solar module is taken outside and installed in the brightest place. Solar-powered lamps can also be wall-mounted. During the day, the battery of the lamp is charged, and at dusk the charged battery supplies power to the lamp, which illuminates the toilet. A charged battery is enough to operate the lamp for 8 hours. In the warm season, this is precisely the time of the dark part of the day.

Lamp power per solar battery 0.3W is quite enough for light illumination, but it is better to consider options starting from 0.6W.

Caring for lamps is quite simple. During the operating period, it can work continuously. Many lamp models have a switch. This will allow you to turn off the device while you are away. With the onset of cold weather and, accordingly, at the end of the operating period, it is enough to remove the battery and take it away for storage in a warm place until the next season.

This simple solution allows you to illuminate not only the country toilet, utility rooms, verandas and gazebos. But for this case you will need brighter lamps and more in quantity.

Most interesting models solar-powered lamps for toilet lighting can be found in an assortment trademark Space, this manufacturer offers several models of SOL218 and SOL224 lamps. In appearance, the lamps are not similar to lamps for housing and communal services, but differ in the presence solar panel and a long enough wire.