russell smith

R Scott wrote:You can do it if you can get the material by the semi load and have a decent loader to turn the piles, but it will be a full time job to turn the piles for a while.

Manure spreader to put the organic matter out as-is, and then make compost tea to spray everywhere as an inoculant may be more cost/time efficient.  You will still be shocked at the semi loads needed to cover 40 acres with meaningful amounts organic matter.

Cover crops are definitely more cost effective.  

I am looking at hauling in to get started as I need to repair the of manure spreader I have to apply.
Where the soil is near sterile should a guy disc or plow to mix the compost into the soil to restart the microbes?

In my case there is little to no organic material in the soil, so I have to bring some in.

Anybody on here that has experience with composting on a large scale? Not you average household scale, but big enough to make compost for ACRES, up to 80 acres of farm, with 40 acres tillable.This would be a small scale commercial operation for most.
I live in a semi-arid climate, with fields that are partly a coarse sand that even wheat will not sprout in, I am looking at doing a large scale compost using a mixture of wood chips for carbon, grass clippings for nitrogen, and assorted manure from cows, horses, goats& rabbits.  This ground needs intensive care even if all I do is grow hay.

I like the vertical RMH concept.

I was looking to see if I could still contribute to& participate in the kickstarter project, I was looking to chip in at the $90 level.


TIA.

What file format are these?

allen lumley wrote:Our Rocket Mass Heater RMH, needs to quickly create the Freaky High Temperatures and Generate the Great efficiencies of its clean

burn ! As the water in the water jacket will rapidly steal the heat needed to maintain the high Combustion temperatures- never getting

above 212 itself - We have to expect that we would have all of the products of incomplete combustion for a while with every time we

light a fire in our RMH This would prolong the amount of time that your RMH needs operator attention 2 or 3 Xs standard -

This type of burn is the kind of smoky fire that annoys your neighbors - if you have any !

As I understand, it is critical for the temps to get super hot i the flame tunnel& the insulated chimney, after that, you have the barrel which is the primary heat exchange, there you want to extract as much heat as possible, 1 to heat the space, 2 to collapse the gas cloud to settle to the exhaust manifold, then through your secondary heat exchange, aka mass bench.
You could add the fins to a 55 gallon barrel, but you would have to make notches to clear the ridges rolled into the drums, so it would be much easier to do it with a straight wall drum.
The outdoor boilers lack the insulated fire chamber& insulated chimneys.

I have been kicking around the idea of a RMH for a while, and had some ideas that popped up that I wondered might improve efficiency &/ safety.
What if, instead of using a 55 gallon drum, a person used a cylinder of smooth rolled steel, then to that steel, you attached angles of 2-1/2X2 with a 1/2 flange made from 16, or 18ga stock, that was tacked, or spot welded to the barrel, with a slight overlap onto the angle before it, where it would also be spot welded. this would result in multiple square channels around the circumference of the barrel, the air inside these channels would warm from the heat directly coming from the barrel, and the vertical stands would act as fins further drawing heat away from the barrel, you would loose some of the infrared heat coming off the barrel but it would heat more air, and the outer surface might be enough cooler to avoid catastrophic burns as well.

Another thought was if you fabricated your barrel, installing a flange on the bottom& sealed the top, then attached a second rolled piece over the first that was 2-3" larger in diameter, resulting in a water jacket completely enveloping the barrel (vented) this water could be circulated for in floor heating& such.

Regarding the pebble bed, have you experimented with different sizes of pebbles to see how well they breathe?
I have a sand pit near me that routinely has piles of larger rocks (egg sized) that get screened out& eventually dumped back into the pit for lack of demand, these are rounded stones as this part of the sate was under sea once, but i wondered if these were used in the mass bed, if some sort of screen was used under the bed, or slots were cut if air would circulate through the bed via convection.

Another new member here, I have wondered about using non traditional fuels in a RMH, since I live in SW KS, good firewood can be a challenge at times& I have wondered if a guy could make bundles& get good results burning stalks of Bluestem grass, or dried cat tail stalks, etc. or as my ancestors did, cow pies.
Common woods around here otherwise are Chinese Elm, Willow, Cottonwood (these three are wet woods, smokey and make a lot of ash)
Better woods are mulberry, locust, and hedge (pops& sparks badly, but HOT)