Another stupid heating thought running through my head

[Racerboy832]

I see all the time the heat coming off large woodchip piles. Every now and again one will catch on fire. What I was thinking about was, if you put some sort of heat ex changer in the middle and ran water through the lines could you temper the water to make it easier to heat. After all the piles are there just doing nothing.

 

[kennyl70]

you have them around your house????? large wood chip piles. or you thinking about making them?

 

[Racerboy832]

neither, I was just kicking the thought around in my head. It would go along the same lines as if you had a huge landfill they must produce heat as the stuff breaks down. There has to be a way to harvest the energy without lighting off the methane gas. Geothermal heating above ground.

 

[kennyl70]

I see. I would think it would work as long as you could regulate the heat enough to stop combustion within the pile.

 

[Milkweed Seed]

neither, I was just kicking the thought around in my head. It would go along the same lines as if you had a huge landfill they must produce heat as the stuff breaks down. There has to be a way to harvest the energy without lighting off the methane gas. Geothermal heating above ground.

Quit thinking so hard!! I smell something burning and it ain't mulch:msp_wink:

 

[Arbonaut]

Compost gets 160 degrees. It's physics. It could be done. You got a logistic nightmare.

 

[zogger]

Had the same idea back in the 90s and made a test pile. It could be done, self pumping, with a passive thermosiphon setup, leading to a radiator where you want ther heat, then it dumps back down into the pile.

Changing it out yearly might be a chore, because your heat pickuop hose has to be really embedded in there, but the idea has merit. I was going to make one here but the big chipper broke, and it is above my pay grade to deal with it. If/when the boss gets it fixed I will try one, or the greenhouse primarily to start with.

We have three big composting barns here, for chicken litter, they periodically catch fire. Then it is payloader and skid steer action to get the burning stuff outside where it can be put out.Theres a fine line you dont want to cross between real high temp proper composting and catching on fire. Main thing to watch out for is excess moisture in whatever you are composting.

 

[wndwlkr]

I've read articles in mother earth news where folks do this with compost piles and lots of pex type coils.they claim it works good.

 

[1ruralmailman]

i have read about the same thing in farm news.guy built his in a compost horse manure pile.worked good for him.

 

[homemade]

I think your better off working on a way to burn chips effectively. then you wouldn't waist wood in all the brush we are always dragging around. maybe even an auger feed system like a pellet stove with a large truck sized hopper. after you get your truck full. just back up to the hopper and dump it in. a false floor in the chip hopper so you can run a drying fan.
no mess in the yard, no splitting by hand...

 

[sdt7618]

Not really a compost heap, but proposed heat sink on a massive scale Heat energy beneath Glasgow | Geothermal energy | Renewables and energy security | British Geological Survey (BGS)

 

[Arbonaut]

You can't beat pellets. In Brazil and so on where they are bulldozing buko acres for farming, they are generating power with pellet boilers. We could do that and never run out if people like those contributing to this thread was in charge.

 

[zogger]

I think your better off working on a way to burn chips effectively. then you wouldn't waist wood in all the brush we are always dragging around. maybe even an auger feed system like a pellet stove with a large truck sized hopper. after you get your truck full. just back up to the hopper and dump it in. a false floor in the chip hopper so you can run a drying fan.
no mess in the yard, no splitting by hand...

A compost heater though when you get done you still have a valuable product. You could have quite the killer garden with all that compost, or sell it.

Ya, you can spread ashes on your garden from straight burning, but compost is loads better.

 

[Gamedic]

I ran a garden hose through a compost pile here last fall. It was just a quick informal experiment. The compost pile was just leaves and grass clippings, probably 15-20 yards or so. It surprisingly heated the water to 120 degrees or so for a week, but lost all its heat as soon as it rained. I believe a different compost mediam would work better.I read about a guy in France who heated his home and domestic water year round with massive piles of horse manure and hay compost. I think he had to change piles about twice a year if I recall correctly.