Environmental engineer with a masters in renewable powers using the magic powers of permies.com to learn all about the "rocket" technology and innovate with the fellow rocket scientists.
fist off I want to say that even the best system might be revoked by the officials just because they don’t understand or don’t want to deal with it.
But the humanure hand book has a lot of useful information, also on how to talk to the officials.
A roof is a very good idea to control the moisture. Avoiding rainfall (and placing the piles in an area that doesn’t get flooded) should take care of the well situation.
Unless they ask you to do it I wouldn’t put an impermeable bottom. You want a big pillow of dry, organic matter as a start of each pile. But you want worms and bacteria to be able to come into your pile from the earth. If you have to provide an impermeable bottom consider adding some ripe compost or earth or forest earth to the new piles.
I personally don’t like the urine diversion. Makes everything more complicated. Jenkins also advocates for not separating.
Even if they make you build a traditional system you’re still free to install it but not use it.
Hi Daniel.
It’s nice to have a fellow permie in the area.
When it comes to your construction, I actually don’t know how similar they are.
We were renovating a first floor (touching the earth).
I don’t really understand the situation with the roof you’re trying to support. Is an architect involved in that? Sounds like you need one.
Mostly a very dense, very moist, whole grain rye bread. Had to turn 30 years old to start appreciating it again.
It was tasty when my grandma would make one with butter and salt and “paint” something on it to make it more fun to eat though.
A little update from the pizza rocket.
I am very pleased with the performance. Heats up in roughly 15 min, fairly easy to start.
There is some smoke sometimes and some soot collects on pots ect.
But I really enjoy baking and cooking in and with it. Bread in clay pots, oven vegetables on a sheet and some beans or lentils all at the same time with the oven rack system.
Oven packed
In the picture you can see the slits where the hottest air comes out from under the "pizza tile". When using a tray to bake potatoes or other vegetables I like to prop it up with 2 of the T-bars so it's not in direct contact with the hot tile.
And the bread goes up on the rack.
Oven rack system
The rack system are just bricks with cuts and t-bars that span. Like this I can put something on the bottom and something on top. And switch it up according to need.
When making pizza I noticed the pizza didn't get enough heat from the top. Understanding physics was key to come up with a solution.
The hot air does collect in the vaulted ceiling and needs to exit at the bottom of the oven. So the ceiling does get nice and hot. So far so good.
Oven vaulted ceiling
But the ceiling is far away from the top of the pizza and heat radiation is governed by the inverse square law.
So I took a thick metal plate, cut it in half to fit through the oven door and put it on the upper rack when making pizza.
Metal sheet for higher pizza radiation
Metal sheet in position
This way the top of the pizza gets crispy cheese at the same rate as the crust gets perfectly browned.
Hey Josh,
I'm suprised too. I thought there would be a longer period in which it would always compress and compost back down.
The leaves might be part of it, although the ones in contact with moisture and the BSF larvae disappear quickly.
In general a lot of things work better with bigger volume to surface area ratios. The test pile might just be too small.
The lid would keep the rain off. Though rain is not a thing here. We have the opposite problem.
So far I’m quite pleased. The cover material keeps enough moisture in so I don’t have to water except the rinsing of the buckets every week or so.
The BSF are very happy it seems. I like them since they break everything down into small pieces in a matter of days and then the bacteria can take over.
