My google skills aren’t up to the task of finding a solution to this. I need to know how to find the temperature inside a standard sized portapotty of approx 4’x4’x7.5’ light brown/tan in color with a white roof in direct sunlight at noon with ambient local temperature at or near 130F. Possible heat injury hazard so need answer quick please. (just picturing Elvis in the army now instead of then as I think about this)
With the 130 ambient, you know the temperature is already unbearable. The inside temp is double unbearable. It has to be 140 or greater. Who can stand such temps? I’m just going to use whatever shade the shanty provides and go outside.
130? Where are you, on Venus?
Knock on a neighboring resident’s home. Drive to a gas station. If there’s no residence or gas station for miles, pee/poo on the ground. Do not use that potty! If you absolutely have to for some reason, prop open the door and station a lookout so nobody sees you. And preferably, move it into some shade. I’d be more worried that the seat would burn my ass at those temperatures than I would be afraid of heat exhaustion. (especially if it’s black, and lots of portapotties have black seats)
Possibly in Iraq; the temperature in Diwaniya yesterday was 126 degrees, and Iraq as a whole is in the middle of a heat wave (New York Times article here.)
baghdad is the locale, as a matter of fact. not sure what the temp was today, couple days ago it did hit 130. tryin to get the section chief to authorize a shelter of some sort that would provide some shade for at least part of the day. I was guessing that inside temp would be around 150-160. sigh, guess I’ll just find some thermometers to put in there and hope they don’t disappear.
I’m not sure what the humidity is like in Baghdad, but it’s got to be higher inside a Porta-John, right? For obvious liquid related reasons no one wants to think about?
So yeah, in addition to just the number on the thermometer, there’s a serious heat index issue to worry about.
More humid, and less ventilation, which will also raise the temperature. I think hanging a thermometer is your best bet.
Plus the additional heat caused by the decomposition of the poop.
Blisters are a worry, couple of people have sat without thinking and gotten them, but yeah, more worried about the rest of the heat injury spectrum
On a sorta positive note, cheif did post signs telling users not to sit but to hover in all of them for now. he’s pretty old school army, probably not gonna build the shade on the theory that if you can join you should have pooping or peeing if you sit to do so, without burning yourself mastered by now. Plus I suppose it does cut down on homesteading in there to avoid work.
How long will you stay in that location? Because if you’re going to be there for a longer time, I would suggest building a ventilated pit latrine instead of using a port-a-potty. (The ventilation refers to the feces, not the customers). For longer term, this is much better than port-a-potties, which have to be emptied regularly.
Additionally, with little effort you can capture the methane in an improved pit latrine and use it to burn either for cooking (no it doesn’t smell of shit at that point) or to make energy.
Given thatenergy independence is apparently a big thing in warfare, this might be a good idea. (True, this refers to Afghanistan, not Iraq, but surely the destroyed infrastructure there is still a problem, too?)
In addition, if your chief is old-fashioned, then having the guys dig a pit is excellent training/ make-work, isn’t it? 