[doganjo]

Well insulated?

[rustyme]

if Morgan is on top of Ben Nevis, he is a pervert !!! ...get off him and leave him alone...dirty boy ...dirty boy ....

cheers


Russ

[sausagesandcash]

He told me his name was Ben Dover!   

[Bodger]

Back on topic.

Many years ago, I went to the now defunct Shire Horse Centre in Yealmpton  Devon. They had twenty odd shires producing masses of poop mixed with straw. The centre was very go ahead and produced the sites hot water by having coils of plastic piping full of water inside numerous mountains of rotting horse poo.

[sausagesandcash]

You can buy black piping in circular coils. So in theory if you welded metal supports around it you could lift it out as a roll, when the compost had rotted and place it at the centre of a new pile without having the messy hastle of coiling the piping back up. I think I might experiment with the garage and see how I go. A few other jobs to do first though!

[Bodger]

Getting my hands dirty wouldn't bother me, I'm perpetually in the S*** !

[rustyme]

any reasonable compost heap of large enough size , would provide heat for about 4-6 weeks . So piping would need to be removed and relaid in that same time scale.That would be lots of fiddly work , I did it and it really is a fiddle.
    Thats why the brush compost heap works better, because it takes so much longer to break down and the shear size helps keep it working too. Thats why I thought a tank the size of a hot water tank, would be better for a smaller muck heap . The main heat would be in the middle, where the tank would be put !! A heavy duty galvanised tank would last much longer than an old copper tank or maybe even longer than black plastic. Unless the plastic pipe is special heat proof stuff , it's life span would be quite short.
          The tank method is much easier to maintain too , remove old compost without fear of puncturing plastic pipe etc . If using horse manure and straw , the heap will heat up almost immediately and could be turned on a weekly basis to maintain maximum heat . This could be done for 4 weeks or so , or until heat dropped too much . Which ever way you go it means heavy work , on a regular basis.
            If a fork lift was available ? a system of pallets could be made with wire cages (about the size of IBC wotsits) fitted, and then filled with horse manure and straw , then placed around the heavy duty water tank , like spokes round a hub !!. some form of lid put on the centre and then the whole lot would heat up . As heat dropped in the containers , they could either be taken away by fork lift, and remixed or replaced with fresh . This would then be a perpetual system , with easy change over. Water tank would be semi permanent , as would fittings . This system would last a long time and would be quite easy to make using second hand materials . Thats how I thought of doing it anyway ... drawback ...no fork lift !!!!


cheers

Russ

[Bodger]

As I recall, the SHC had several bays that they piled the poop into in a rotar. As one pile finished producing heat then the next one was ready to be switched on. It seemed very simple to use.