Horse manure central heating!

[Big Al]

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then its going to have to be a suck it and see situation.

Annette

Annette

rather you than me.......

I got shouted at for being negative towards Giggles as my reasons are on her post,lol. One main idea is maintaining temperiture and the need for running your pump all the time. You will need a good regulated pump and time to work out the correct flow rate for different temperitures etc because like solar heating if you set the pump to too fast a flow rate the water will not have time to heat up in the muck.

Go ahead and try it, great inventions always had their nay sayers.....

[Netty]

Well, what do you know?! Seems as if I'm not the first (or Giggles for that matter). Found a fab couple of sites, giving ideas of dimensions and methods of coiling the pipe etc ....and...da da da da da da daaaaaa....how to stop the heat being taken out of the pile at such a rate as to halt decomposition....rotation!!!!

Ooh! Who would ever have thought s*it could be so exciting!!!

[Big Al]

Well, what do you know?! Seems as if I'm not the first (or Giggles for that matter). Found a fab couple of sites, giving ideas of dimensions and methods of coiling the pipe etc ....and...da da da da da da daaaaaa....how to stop the heat being taken out of the pile at such a rate as to halt decomposition....rotation!!!!

Ooh! Who would ever have thought s*it could be so exciting!!!

Well come on then spill the beans on the websites please...

[Netty]

I just googled "compost heating house" and it threw up a few articles (and quite few red herrings of course!) some of which mentioned leaves and chicken poo amongst other things :0)

I have also now been looking at woodchips too (again I have access to a free and never ending supply), and they have got a mention in a few. I'm waiting to see if I can gain access to a site called Navitron renewable something or other as there was something that caught my eye on there, though I can't remember what atm, as I am a bit pre-occupied with a sick daughter *rolls eyes* :0)

Need to look into it further obviously, but interesting nevertheless.

I think I have been chasing the wrong leads as I have been googling specifically horse manure heating and variations of this. "Composting" seems to have widened the search.

One thing that has struck me though, when I first started looking into this a few years ago, what I read then was saying to have the horse manure mixed with woodchip/shavings (3/4:1 I think it was off the top of my head). I have been testing shavings and straw mixes here, and I am getting higher temps with a straw mix. I also did a few quick prods with the thermometer in a pile of woodchip a few months back, and at its hottest it was only about 50. So I wonder why wood mix comes up more often than straw? Maybe its due to the fact it rots at a slower rate perhaps?

[Ellendra]

Here's another way to heat with manure: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/hooker87.html

The guy dries his horse manure then burns in in a woodburner. The ashes are spread on his garden, with impressive results.

[Netty]

Thank you, I read about that too. Thought phase 2 might be to "brick" it and dry it and burn it :0) Watch this space....!

Edited to add, the only drawback I can see with this, is the space you'd need (presumably) undercover to dry it out.

[Jessiebean]

I will be watching this thread with great interest, my husband has taken an (unhealthy?) interest in alternative power lately but is unimpressed with solar or wind due to limitations.. he is interested in a methane generator but seems to have disturbingly set his heart on a small homemade nuclear reactor to make hot water.. maybe I can distract him with the possibillites of compost/manure generating direct heat....

[Netty]

Lol! That really did make me giggle Jessiebean :0) and there's me thinking methane was too dangerous...!

[Green Aura]

I'm finding this quite interesting but I'm wondering (with absolutely no experience of such matters you understand ) how you dry out the manure. The only place I know where dung is used as fuel is in hot countries where it's left on the ground to dry.

I know it heats up while rotting but will it dry it out enough to burn? Or does that mean you'd have to use energy to dry it out over here?

I've only ever used "raw" manure to make a hot bed in the greenhouse so of course that was still damp when we dug it up from the watering.

[Netty]

As far as I know (and I have absolutely no scientific back ground, only 30 odd years of building muckheaps) moisture is needed for the fermentation process. So I'm guessing that if I heap this in the bunker as I plan, then with a lid on to try and keep more heat in, but which would then prevent the rain from getting into it, then I would have to water it.

As for drying out for burning. I assume it would have to be undercover to dry, as opposed to being in a stack as you would to season logs.

BUT, I have no real idea, just a gut instinct

[Harasimow]

How many times in a year are you going to have to replace the manure? And what are you going to do with the "spent" manure?

[Netty]

How many times in a year are you going to have to replace the manure?

I have no idea having never tried this before.

If you build a muck heap ( and I should point out I actually do mean a muck heap, not a heap of muck - there's a vast difference) then, when it gets to a certain size, it rots as quickly as you add to it. So effectively, it doesn't get any bigger after a certain point. Going on past experience, this seems to be about 12x12ft with slightly less in height. I'll be doing this on a much smaller scale, so I'm not sure how its going to react - especially as we'll be taking heat from it. Also it decreases its size by about 1/3 to 1/2 within the first couple of weeks, then it slows to the same reduction, but over a couple of months.

One site I was reading (mother earth I think, but might be wrong here) said the construction they did, held its heat for about 18 months.

And what are you going to do with the "spent" manure?

A properly constructed muck heap reduces to nothing within couple of years (max), the time taken depends on what type of bedding you use. As I guess the usefulness for us in the way of heat would have gone out of it long before it rots to that extent, then it'll have to be taken out and replaced. What we take out, will go the same way as the stuff we already have from the horses ie, into a heap somewhere safe and out of the way.

Annette xx

[Netty]

Huge scale! and completely over my head

http://www.agrilab.ca/about1.html