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Hellooo I have just posted on the how do I bit. I am hoping to run my central heating system on horse manure - of which we have loads, as I have 10 horses.
I run a B&B and our heating costs are frightening. Anything that can be done to cut them down (or better still, eliminate) gets the from me
I'd be interested in comparing notes if anyone has tried this before/is thinking of giving it a go.
I don't know anything about horse manure for heating - I'd rather put it on the garden. We're planning to switch over to wood/solar heating and, prompted by my dad's cynicism - "You won't save any money doing that" - I worked out the payback times. Even if we manage to get the cost of the system down to what we've budgetted for, and if we spent NOTHING on gas once it's installed (unlikely as I'll still be using it for cooking), it would still take fifteen years until we'd save what it cost to put it in.
The modifications to your existing system will need to be fairly minor, I suspect, to make this cost-effective.
My uncle and cousin actually put our system in originally, and I have been running this idea past them for a while. Up until recently, it has only been theoretically as I hadn't actually taken any temperature readings, so wasn't sure if I could hit the temps needed. They said I needed it to be above 45/50 degrees so that it didn't damage the radiators. Apart from that, set up wise, all it needs is a coil of hep20 pipe (which we have, cost us around £25 if I remember rightly) a couple of holes drilled through the wall to bring the pipes in and some valves so that we can isolate one system from the other and some thingamy jigs to connect the pipes up. The biggest part of the job appears to be draining down and refilling of the system. So yes, costs I believe should be minimal - the biggest being paying the plumber for a days work! With oil prices now running at over £1000 for half a tank, a couple of hundred to a plumber has to be worth a go I think.
BTW, sorry I meant to say that one of the best things we have done is have a wood burner installed. Its paid for itself over and over. But we have a free and unending supply of wood (our own) so it only costs us a few litres of petrol and some time to chop it up
My second choice if the manure idea does not work, is swap to a wood fuelled boiler, but DH will take a bit of convincing as he's the one that has to chop it
Let us be lovely
And let us be kind
Let us be silly and free
It won't make us famous
It won't make us rich
But damn it how happy we'll be!
Edward Monkton
Member of the Ish Weight Loss Club since 10/1/11 Started at 12st 8 and have lost 8lb so far!
Hello Netty and welcome.
My husband was looking in doing something similar to you but with a mixture of compost and wood chip to heat up the house when we finally move to France. It seams that the heat would only start to go down after 18 months, but hey we have not tested it yet. Based on what he says, as horse manure will decompose faster, you would need to change the pile more often. If you decide to go ahead with it, please tell us how you get on... I am not sure we will try this option ourselves finally as hubby is now looking into a ground source heat pump.
I have just posted on the how do I bit. I am hoping to run my central heating system on horse manure - of which we have loads, as I have 10 horses. 
from me 
(thanks)
(doesn't take much!