compost heater idea, your thoughts,

I would like to build a compost water heater. I have read up on some bits in other topics so here goes. I would use the coiled plastic water pipe for the heat exchange element inside a large metal tank/container. I would mount this on legs to help when changing the compost material, fill from the top, empty from the bottom. I would use woodchip, I'm a tree surgeon, mixed with grass cuttings and other normal domestic compost stuff. then using some sort of turbine equip/machine powered by the escaping steam from the tank, power a pump to pump the water to my house.
Q's
would I need to soak the woodchip while in the tank?
Would air holes drilled in the tank be surfice for oxygen to help the composting?
Am I talking complete cobblers?

Any help would be great.

Thanks
Kris

North Staffs
England

Kris Turner : Probably the next poster can give you the name of a Frenchman who made himself famous doing this like in the '30s? Paul W. Has a video on this
probably on his sister site Richsoil.com ! It showed a compost heated outdoor shower for WWOOF Volunteers, and was used for a whole summer ! It was 'just'
black plastic pipe buried in a compost pile just like the french man who also had a system for the production of bio-gas stored in - I believe - truck or tractor
inner-tubes For the Good of the Craft ! Big AL

Kris - Welcome to Permies...

I think, Allen was referring to Jean Pain, here is one of his YouTube videos, there are several others that you can see from viewing this one, you could probably also Google him and find more or more current info...

Jean Pain Method Compost Heater
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9rA10iv1Rc

Kris - Here is also another link with info that might lead you where you want to go...

http://www.google.com/search?q=jean+pain+method&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=gNefUaq0H-vDyAH33oCoDw&ved=0CDsQsAQ&biw=1183&bih=881

Ollie Puddlemaker : Thank you, these days our Rocket mass heaters work so well the only time I smell smoke is when i try and think ! Does any one know the
Paul W. video I mentioned above !?! - For the Craft - Big AL

Found it go to you tube and type into the search tool - 500 showers heated from one small compost pile how to tutorial - Don't blame me thats the title Paul W.
gave it !

For the future, PYRO AL comments/questions solicited/Welcome A. L.

Thanks Al and Ol.
I'll have a gander at them.

Cheers

Would draping a black tarp over the pile allow the sun to heat the pile more than normal so you're getting heat from both solar and the composting process? Or would the extra heat screw up the composting process?

As a test, put coils into 3 or 4 black trashcans that have sun exposure, fill the trashcans with lawn clippings, wood chips, food waste, ect... Run the water through the coils before it goes into the hot water heater. See what happens.

If the sun's heat interferes with the composting process, would that process begin again when the sun goes down, providing heat 24/7, rain or shine?

What about hay? Hay bales can catch fire if they're too green when bundled, or so I've heard. Any way to safely harness that process for hot water heating? You wouldn't want it to actually catch fire, so somehow regulate that process so it gets hot, but not too hot. You could bale the hay around the water line. Put hay into something metal and keep it a fair distance from the home. If it catches fire, it burns itself out in the metal container, a safe distance from the house.

Bill B. : Kris Turner proposed to use wood chips. which could be wetted unto saturation and mixed with other biomasses, grass and hay being two. If covered to protect
against water vapor loss! I believe this would hold heat as mentioned in the threads, if the hole thing consisting of several tons was piled around a biogas digester you
could have hot water, and generate enough bio gas to do all your cooking for most of the year longer off of your table scraps if a layer of plastic was put over the wet
chips followed by dry chips to insulate.

And dont forget the gallons of 'compost tea' created every day ! For good Craftsmanship, keep warm! PYRO AL Your comments are solicited and Welcome ! A. L.