Keen, as I am on the latest and greatest technological advances, when I recently needed to upgrade my ageing septic tank I did a little research and came across an alternative.
Traditional domestic waste management systems in France generally require a filtration bed. This is typically a series of perforated pipes buried in a specific type of sand. The liquor that is treated by the anaerobic septic tank is then filtered through the sand. These systems are expensive and hugely disruptive to install due, in part, to the quantity of spoil that must be excavated.
An alternative aerobic type of system exists where the sand filtration bed is not typically necessary, resulting in significantly less disruption to you garden and a swifter installation. We did ours in just a few hours.
Take a look and the video and if you have any questions, ask them in the comments below and Andrew or myself can respond. Myself from a homeowners perspective and Andrew can handle the more technical questions or you can contact him directly, details below.
The 5 person unit was certified much before late 2015 but only the ones specifically made for the french market as they differ from the ones sold in the UK. I have one in my garden working perfectly and passed by SPANC with outfall directly in to roadside ditch.
Working with many different types of system in many different departments in Brittany and Lower Normandy we find that the rules change from spanc office to spanc office although there is a national standard - DTU 64.1 which should be worked to everywhere.
Finistere will not allow direct reject in to any form of watercourse, Il et Villaine is quite happy for this to happen with micro stations, Cotes d'armor - depends on the individual Spanc inspector etc etc - so although national rules exist they are all interpreted locally.
Always a good idea to talk to either a bureau d'etude or local Spanc before planning any form of installation so you do not waste your time.
Please note that if required, the area of infiltration bed required for a micro station is worked out using the assumed fluid output of the house, the infiltration capacity of the soil and the space available. It will never be as large as for a traditional epandage.
I wouldn't like to be too specific on exact dates when we were discussing the importation of WPL units and the actual date they got their certificate but I gather there were a lot of false starts despite the fact that the Germans who are known to be very meticulous about things like this had given their blessing and certified the WPL, it felt like protectionism on the part of the french. No leach field is required now as far as I know, we pulled out due to the non license able units for 2nd/holiday homes. But there were a couple of changes made internally to the WPL Diamond in order to get full certification. Not that it matters but a friend constructed as you did his own fosse and the price was just a little more due in part to an extra large area being required compared to WPL diamond unit at around ÂŁ5000 then
Yes Jonathan, it was about that time SPANC were making WPL jump through hoops and constantly moving the goal posts. However after much testing and re testing they finally gave it a certificate about 18months- 2years ago that it doesn't require the leech field soak away. Interestingly the people who were installing in france prior to that certificate shouldn't have been as the WPL diamond hadn't passed at that time. Interesting that your conventional system was 1/3 the price, the reason we got interested in the WPL Diamond was it was only a 1/3-1/2 of the price of a conventional system but took up far less space.
Thanks Tim, that's interesting. Have you worked with this system much? I've heard of ECOFLO but not Clearfox. Do you (or anyone else on here) have any experience of the reliability of the Clearfox system? No filter replacement sounds good!
I have also had recommended to me the Compact'O ST and ST2, the Stoc Oxyfiltre 5 and the Eparco Zeolite. Do you have any opinions of these?
there are grants available for installations though not for free unless there are reductions under the various headings See SPANC website In French as below
Like every other Brit we've come across, we've jumped through this particular hoop: we went for the Neve Topaze T5, a very compact aerated system. But I'm curious as to what do people do if they're being forced to instal or upgrade and they don't have any money? These things aren't cheap and I haven't heard of the SPANC putting them in for free for poorer people.
There had never been a WC in our house when we got it: "bucket and chuck it" - and there are still a few of those in the area, and the residents have no intention of "upgrading".
Eparcyl? well that's a dried version of bacteria that gets working after a while but so would your excrement but there is a lag in the time it begins to get digested by the bacteria, so I guess that's why they are not sanctioned for holiday homes. By the time it gets working your switching it off and coming home again.
Can't you chuck down a few sachets of microbes to kick start the system when you arrive? I believe you can buy sachets in supermarkets or is that something different??
Rod when we were looking to import WPL diamond units into France all looked good but the Sante/SPANC would not pass them for part time occupied properties.
Not all of the units require a power/air source, Biorock for instance do not but they need a constant supply of fresh "food" otherwise microbe activity dies back when not used and would take some time to get going again when you suddenly turn up and and fill it back up again which would quickly create a nasty mess.
