Compost Heating

We are building a camp up in the Adirondack State Park on some property my family and I have owned for a gagillion years. There is no electricity available so all energy you have to furnish yourself. I have been looking for some off the wall ways of heating the place without say, propane or wood and have been thoroughly fascinated with all the info out there about using compost piles to heat water. It seems wherever you search, you find the pioneer of this was a French man by the name of Jean Pain:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Pain

Anyway, it basically consists of coiling a bunch of polypipe into a large compost pile made of finely shredded brush, leaves (generally debris found on the forest floor). You water it as you build the pile and according to the experience of Mr Pain, when completed (and when composting begins), you should be able to run water through the pipe and heat it to around 140 degrees for up to 18 - 24 months. He supposedly heated his entire home (including hot water). He also collected the gas emitted from a barrel in the center of the pile that has compost tea in it. He would use that for his stove and also to fuel his truck.

I have TONS of material and free access to a pretty beefy wood chipper, so I am thinking this may be a project for me in the spring. Anyone here ever try this before?

What I was considering doing was filling a 50 gallon drum with coiled polypipe and filling up the remainder of the drum with water. I would have an inlet and outlet pipe. I would cap and seal the drum and then bury it inside the mulch pile, wetting each layer. Since this is a camp, most of the time we won't be there. During this time, the heat in the pile would slowly heat the water in the barrel. Water, tends to hold heat for a while, especially when insulated. Then when we did use the water, we would run it through the polypipe and it would transfer heat from the water in the barrel better than it would if it were directly in contact with the mulch. It would be a more gradual heat exchange I would think. I would think if these was ever a solution for HEATING, the water would have to be heavily mixed with anti-freeze for obvious reasons..

My sons and I were already going to build a compost pile this weekend for next years garden, in fact, I have been collecting manure from some local farms for the last few weeks. While we were making the "lasagna" I decided to coil up an old hose in the center of the pile. I kept water pressure on the hose. What the hell? If it works, I can give the dog a bath outside with the hose and not freeze his butt off lol..

Yes, I have seen all of that.. I pretty much googled it out. Today I ran the hose that I have through the new compost pile.. I didn't use a thermometer but it was definitely warm but nowhere near HOT. About the same as a warm swimming pool. Occasionally colder water will come through, I am thinking that is from part of the hose being in a cold part of the pile. It is definitely getting hotter. I don't want to pull too much heat out of it so I am going to let it sit for 3-4 more days before I try it again.

woodchip said:

I have had trenches in a greenhouse filled with composting materials in previous years to warm the soil for raising early plants.

There is no doubt that composting does produce heat.

My only thought is how much heat can you take out of the composting process before that process is compromised and just stops before the process is complete.......

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I have always wondered that too.. I am assuming if the system was a closed loop heating system, once it got up to temperature, it would not remove as much heat as running cold water through the pipes..

midwestcoast said:

Sure will be interesting. I think your idea of heating a mass af water over a longer period, then extracting when you need it is a good one. Do you think 50 Gals will be able to store enough heat to supply your intermittent load? How much heat would 50 gals of water hold at 140 degrees?

Edit-------

Oh and by the way, I'm totally jealous of your camp in the ADKs! Sweet!

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Thanks!

I am thinking the barrel might hold enough heat for a 5 minute shower, maybe? Keep in mind, the water never leaves the barrel, only the heat does as the water travels through the polypipe transfers the heat from the water in the barrel. If it were a closed loop system, I am thinking you could run it under the floor of the camp as radiant floor heating. I would prefer the shower instead..

The garden hose is more or less an experiment and btw, I ran it the other day and the water was about 98 degrees, still a ways to go I think. I am not using the Jean Pain style compost pile though, where he just shreds wood and and organics from the forest floor. My compost pile is basically just leaves, horse/chicken manure, kitchen scraps and dirt..

I am worried that if it was buried and covered the composting organisms would suffocate?