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  • #1

    Hot water/heat from compost?

    Just floating an idea around here! A bit of brain storming for the ingenious plumbers, engineers and thinkers on here
    I've just watched a video Compost-Based Bio-Energy Systems about a man who heated water by running a hose through a compost heap - he used this water for showers. I wonder whether one could use the hot water to heat a greenhouse - by running something like underfloor heating pipes through greenhouse beds.
    I'm thinking about some sort of closed circuit: a continuous loop of hose that would run through a manure/compost heap alongside the GH. It might need to be at a lower level to the greenhouse ?in a pit, to enable the hot water to rise through the pipes and the cooler water to return to the compost pit.
    What do you think? Or am I in Cloud cuckoo land again?
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  • #2
    More cloud chicken land dear.............

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    • #3
      Sounds workable to me. Keep us informed on your progress.
      I have long since pondered the idea of a darlek of hos muck in the greenhouse over winter to see what happens. I might just have a go after christmas. (i get about 6 bags a month from a friend with 2 ponies)
      The old gardeners in the big houses used to have hot beds for growing winter crops for the kitchen and starting off seedlings. They knew a thing or two.
      Roger
      Its Grand to be Daft...

      https://www.youtube.com/user/beauchief1?feature=mhee

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      • #4
        Sounds like it could be possible. It's basically a ground source heat pump.

        How fresh a heap do you need?

        You can create hot water using various homemade solar systems although they rely on sunshine - and tin cans for making a hot air system like
        DIY solar powered heat for my garage studio for next to nothing « Colorado Art Studio

        There's some really impressive sites listing loads of fantastic projects. They just take time and effort.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by arpoet View Post
          Sounds workable to me. Keep us informed on your progress.
          I have long since pondered the idea of a darlek of hos muck in the greenhouse over winter to see what happens. I might just have a go after christmas. (i get about 6 bags a month from a friend with 2 ponies)
          The old gardeners in the big houses used to have hot beds for growing winter crops for the kitchen and starting off seedlings. They knew a thing or two.
          Roger
          Yups the victorians used horsemuck to heat their greenhouses and large cast iron water pipes were heated by the hotbed and water circulated throughout the greenhouse(s). There was no shortage of horsemuck and it was replaced with fresh whenever the level of heat dropped. At that time of course there was no shortage of horsemuck on their doorstep, well in their stables actually, and of course labour was cheap.

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          • #6
            Perfectly feasible and if the heat source was lower than the hot water store or green house gravity circulation would do away for the need for a pump.

            However, there's always an however.

            You would need a fairly large compost heap so that you could install a heating coil to make it work properly. And what happens to the heating coil when it comes time to remove the compost, shovels and forks don't go well with pipework.

            Then again what effect would it have on the production of compost. After all we are always trying to warm up the heap and here we are cooling it down.

            Potty
            Potty by name Potty by nature.

            By appointment of VeggieChicken Member of the Nutters club.


            We hang petty thieves and appoint great ones to public office.

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            • #7
              Thanks All for your input This is all purely hypothetical as I'm unlikely to be able to try it out in practice!
              I thought that a coil of rubber hosepipe, put into the heap, then a layer of compost, then another coil of hose, more compost etc, in layers, might work. When it was time to move the heap, the hose would be robust enough to pull out, before forking!

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              • #8
                You're as bad as my son VC! He's always telling me about these things - mind you if the electricity gets any more expensive I may need to get a few more horses...
                Ali

                My blog: feral007.com/countrylife/

                Some days it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints!

                One bit of old folklore wisdom says to plant tomatoes when the soil is warm enough to sit on with bare buttocks. In surburban areas, use the back of your wrist. Jackie French

                Member of the Eastern Branch of the Darn Under Nutter's Club

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                • #9
                  Something like this? But maybe not such a large compost heap - wood chip mulch is supposed to heat up really well, 123 degrees F is about 50 degrees C.
                  Location - Leicestershire - Chisit-land
                  Endless wonder.

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                  • #10
                    Did anyone try this yet, might give it a go for my new polytunnel.
                    http://togrowahome.wordpress.com/ making a house a home and a garden home grown.

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