Jean Pain Pile

[MW0OMZ]

I've been wanting to have a go at this for some time now
but sooo many other projects to finish first

Permaculturenews.org article

[Stinsy]

There are a few parts of that article that caused me to raise an eyebrow.

When I got to:

Once compressed, it has all the same uses as other compressed gas, including running diesel engines with a slight modification to the carburetor.

I stopped reading…

[Joeboy]

There are a few parts of that article that caused me to raise an eyebrow.

When I got to:

Once compressed, it has all the same uses as other compressed gas, including running diesel engines with a slight modification to the carburetor.

I stopped reading…

[Stan]

He used the methane to power a Citroen 2CX, amongst other things.

[MW0OMZ]

There are a few parts of that article that caused me to raise an eyebrow.

When I got to:

Once compressed, it has all the same uses as other compressed gas, including running diesel engines with a slight modification to the carburetor.

I stopped reading…

Yes, a mistake by the Permaculture writer.
Jean Pain piles are very much worth doing.
I wouldn't bother with the methane side of
things, but space heating and hot water at
60 degrees is very useful.

[Joeboy]

There are a few parts of that article that caused me to raise an eyebrow.

When I got to:

Once compressed, it has all the same uses as other compressed gas, including running diesel engines with a slight modification to the carburetor.

I stopped reading…

Yes, a mistake by the Permaculture writer.
Jean Pain piles are very much worth doing.
I wouldn't bother with the methane side of
things, but space heating and hot water at
60 degrees is very useful.

When I read the article I loved the idea of spaceheating from composting piles. Plus thermosiphon, a cherry on the cake.

[robl]

I came across a guy who built a huge insulated rotating composter for heating his house - it rotates back and forth with a motor, and has a blower to bring in oxygen. It's a lot of work I think, but very interesting. I'd love to see it in action somehow! I briefly thought about making one, but there doesn't seem an easy way to dip your toe into something like that, and Mrs RobL thinks I'm mad enough already. Committing to a life of double mowing, drying, bagging, storing, etc seems like hard work. I think there is a fire risk too. I've had a go calculating how much biomass we could grow on our land, and I don't think it would quite be enough - I think 100m^2 could give enough dry material to release 1MWh of heat every year, if the right stuff is growing, so maybe we could get 2 or 3MWh. To make up the shortfall in winter I'd be wandering down the street "borrowing" green wheelie bins.... It's perhaps suitable for somebody with a huge "yard", and a sit on lawnmower.

https://mb-soft.com/public3/globalzl.html

[Moxi]

Wasn't one of the contributors to the old place getting his hot water from compost piles ? I seem to recall some photos of black HDPE pipe work and I think it was even used as their Avatar ??

Moxi

[Stinsy]

I came across a guy who built a huge insulated rotating composter for heating his house - it rotates back and forth with a motor, and has a blower to bring in oxygen. It's a lot of work I think, but very interesting. I'd love to see it in action somehow! I briefly thought about making one, but there doesn't seem an easy way to dip your toe into something like that, and Mrs RobL thinks I'm mad enough already. Committing to a life of double mowing, drying, bagging, storing, etc seems like hard work. I think there is a fire risk too. I've had a go calculating how much biomass we could grow on our land, and I don't think it would quite be enough - I think 100m^2 could give enough dry material to release 1MWh of heat every year, if the right stuff is growing, so maybe we could get 2 or 3MWh. To make up the shortfall in winter I'd be wandering down the street "borrowing" green wheelie bins.... It's perhaps suitable for somebody with a huge "yard", and a sit on lawnmower.

https://mb-soft.com/public3/globalzl.html

The pile would have to be next to your house though and is bound to be a bit wiffy...

[openspaceman]

The pile would have to be next to your house though and is bound to be a bit wiffy...

Not to mention aspergillus mould spores