How to Make a Compost Shower

[overtinkinmyusername]

yessssss this is so great

[65nom]

would copper pipe be more efficient than plastic ? or is there a problem with corrosion .. ?

[tculhane]

Great, inspirational work guys! re: the biogas, Hanna Fathy and I from Solar CITIES Egypt experimented with sealed compost to make methane and it does work but ONLY if you add methanogenic bacteria to the mix. That normally means putting animal dung in (cow or horse manure work great) on the first day. Then, yes, you have to wait for about 2 to 3 weeks (depending on temp, but your compost pile should be on the short end) for first flammable methane (it starts out as CO2 with H2S)

[tculhane]

What works best, we have found, is to put only manure in the bucket on day 1, nest it in the compost pile and wait for first flammable gas. That means your methanogen population is working. Then open the bucket back up and put your compost in and seal. The compost has much higher energy value and will produce much more gas than the manure alone. But the best design is to have a feed in pipe so that each day you can add a little foodwaste; then you get continual biogas production for years.

[oliviamulgrew]

:) i had one back in newzealand way long before 1980s they work well

[leighblackall]

I'm trying to find out the chemical composition of Polyethylene pipe (as used in this video and most other compost hot water systems), and whether any toxins are released at of near 60degC. When burned, PolyPipe (HDPE) released Hydrochloric acid gas. But so far nothing to say it does this at the relatively low temps of compost. I might need to take a trip to the local university.

[FishyMoe]

would it be difficult to get 50 tonnes of compost? seems pretty difficult unless you have like 50 acres.

[oceanstuff2000]

...so,how long did it last?

[Kittlionheart]

I have an opinion here that is a bit different. I do respect this mans attempt to create a way to shower that doesn't use conventional modern methods...But: I think this is getting all a bit silly. First of all if you went to a family in the 16th century and showed them modern plumbing and heating they would be blown away. And if you asked them if they WOULD ever consider returning to use compost, outhouses etc they would say NEVER. Also all this speculation about C02, Methane gas are baseless.

[jaketrobinson]

@Kittlionheart you no not what you speak about...

search youtube for Jean Pain + compost and you can watch both videos where he produces enough methane to run his 4x4 on... so, it is not baseless... this guy admitted that he did not follow Jean's guidelines of letting the 'starter' compost for the methane reactor digest for two months before he put it in the reactor... this guy didn't pre-compost for any time... hence - no methane...

[zer0bot]

@Kittlionheart Do you not understand that this is not a proposition to heat all water in the world with compost? The idea is clearly to make a more friendly, small scale and efficiently heated water, not to return to the 16th century.

[oceanstuff2000]

Great idea to share. Thank you. Since heat rises, if you were to just put the hose lower than a tank... you could capture the heat over longer periods. People often throw out old water heaters because the electrics fail... the tanks are still good. You could do the same with that panel too... put it lower than the tank and use convection.

[WorldStove]

love it!

[Pattrion]

AWESOME< just brilliant!! Love these vids

[MTEXX2]

good to know that idea works.

[various8]

Hey it probably didn't work - one because of the lack of watering but also because it needs to be maintained at 80degf

the whole time to generate methane gas

'maintenance of the 85 to 90 deg. F (29-32 deg. C) temperature at which the necessary bacteriological digestion is most active, If the digester temp rises above 104 deg. F (40 deg C), no gas will be produced at all -- in extremely hot regions a methane production unit should be shaded or otherwise protected from the heat.

[Brethrenunited]

fasinating, i never really thought about it before and i dont know why. I imagine if you were to dig a deep hole/pit and added line to it with connectors and release valves you could keep adding line and compost to run it all year. maybe even next spring you could re dig up the line and put it on top and rebury with the compost for next year. It would take one hell of a pit but maybe worth considering. Peace and Liberty for all.

[fatturdburger]

Thank you great vid!

I got 2 make 1 now

[Quackupuncture]

super idea

[carringtonblush]

This is fantastic.. previously I have tried raising seedlings on shelves above compost heaps, with limited success since the heap doesn't let off much heat. I like the way you are taking the heat directly from it's hot center. Cooling it may also help keep more diverse microfauna alive, to add to the soil later...

[WoundedEgo]

About your "failure" producing methane... as I understand it, when vegetable matter rots in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically) it produces methane gas. Twenty percent of our food waste is rotting anaerobically in landfills and the methane produced is more significant than the CO2 emissions of both cars and industry (as is the methane produced by mooses and cows by their digestion).

Fascinating contribution to science, mate...

[scoobysnaxx2]

He was talking about Jean Pain Les Terepliers who came up with the idea as well as numerous other green ideas that actually worked. if you g oogle JEAN PAIN COMPOSTING you will find his work.

[speedfreakian2]

that's badass!

[JordanPreston]

In this video you mention the name "Jean Penn", at least that is what it sounds like. Do you know if there is any reading or viewing material on him and his studies?

[jaketrobinson]

ht tp : // ww w. yo ut ube . co m/ wa tc h? v=J HRv wN JR Nag

sorry - won't let urls post in replies... put it altogether for part 1 of Jean Pain's compost project... there is a part two as well

heated his house and ran his 4x4 (methane) for 18 mos with this one compost heap...

[theproducegarden]

awesome video, inspirational! Can't say thanks enough.

[quantumsolutions]

Very Clever!

[takadi]

Wow these guys take zero waste to a whole new level

[vhzxb]

like to more do ya have a DVD

[nzanderl]

it lasted two months!

[permascience]

Sounds like a great idea, please visit the URL in the video description for more information. Good Luck!

[leighblackall]

nice one. I've started a wikipedia article about Jean Pain if you could help :)