500 showers heated from one small compost pile how to tutorial

http://www.permies.com
Brian Kerkvliet from Inspiration Farm tells us about his little compost pile that provided 500 hot showers. Compost heat can, indeed, be captured to heat water. After the hot showers, you have a lovely pile of compost! The moisture from the shower feeds mushrooms! Hot water, compost and mushrooms. Permaculture!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• compost
• composting
• hot
• heat
• water
• showers
• shower
• interns
• organic
• fungi
• permaculture
• alternative
• energy
• building
• jean
• pain
• eco
• green
• sustainability
• food
• garden
• environment
• gardening
• plants

[BooGooNFlowoo4Evoo]

How long does the water have to sit inside the hoses inside the pile to get hot? That's the big question.

[paulwheaton12]

@BooGooNFlowoo4Evoo 20 seconds

[vernsixjr]

How does this work in the winter months? We are in the Ozarks of Southern Missouri and I would love to try this. Thanks!

[paulwheaton12]

@vernsixjr come on out to the forums at permies.com and find the thread on the jean pain method. In that thread you will find one that lasted for more than a year.

[brentbps1]

Who's playing the banjo in the background...

Heat from poo.. ewe.

Easier to just do solar heater, so much cleaner too.

[paulwheaton12]

@brentbps1 solar heat is more likely to breed legionella bacteria than this method.

[joemobile7]

Not to mention this is how commercial products are created. Imagine throwing your food scraps in the top of a water heater sleeve in an insulated closet outside your house. If its large enough it can heat the house and give free hot water. These guys are pioneers. Use your imagination!!

[medicinaluse]

what would have been better is actually seeing the thing in action and not taking this chaps word for it.

[Migueldeservantes]

Great work! but Why not to insert it on a large bag and pull out all the methane for cooking or heat?

[1wicked2008]

wouldn't it be better if the shower was down hill from the compost pile.at leased 8 feet over head...i love this ideal..and plan on doing it after the weather breaks here..bamboo is a great ideal for privacy but has alot of maintenance so it don't get out of control.how about a cob wall around it with a roof i think it would be alot better less maintenance and cheap and ez to build with..just a thought..bamboo's not native over here and may take over the landscape over time thx 4 the ideal tho

[lheartlondon]

that is so cool!  love your videos!!!

[benjioch]

hellow my name is benjamin, could you send the information of exactly how you did and with which materials you used on your heating compost to work out please at this email bochito12@hotmail.com

[2turtlesdo]

wow! with all the research on living small this is the best thing i've seen by far!!! thank you for broadening my thinking!!!

[jeffreywhill]

That's one heck of a lot of compost...not what you could generate in the average suburban home with vegetable scraps and leaf raking. To make this practical, you need to live on a farm with animals, or in the deep woods with lots and lots of leaves. I have 28 pine trees on my lot, and a whole year's dropped pine needles might be that big before settling, and pine needles are terrible for composting ... very slow. I'd need manure delivered to make this work.

[sly2kusa]

Now that is awesome!

[KamekoBruns]

Point of order. That is not a "small" compost pile. That joke aside, it's an interesting project but for all the time and effort that must have gone into that for just a two-month pay off wouldn't a geo-thermal setup have provided more benefit in the way of a more consistent heat level and over a much longer time period?

[genmama1955]

Wow! I never knew compost could heat water! You learn something new every day I guess.

[rubert134]

@SickSh0ck I'm not sure if that's sarcasm but anyway the bacteria breaking down the organic matter generate heat. A compost pile can get pretty hot. Not sexually but temperature.