Comment by Powell Gammill

Entered on: 3/28/2009 6:58:18 AM

Yes, I remembered when I realized how hot a compost pile can get [they can actually catch fire or get so hot they cook off all the microbes in the pile generating the heat]. So with proper construction you could get a very hot shower even at night and in winter. I would want a insulated collection reservoir on that solar heater, and to put a preheating water storage feed reservoir next to it. And I would want copper coiled piping inside the compost heap to maximize heat transfer with insulated hosing coming out of the pile to the shower. I would want the reservoirs and the compost pile uphill from the shower to let gravity do its thing.

The methane production is harder. You have to make sure the heat generated by the microbes does not kill off the microbes. I would think there was enough methane generated by the compost heap that siphon tubes planted within the pile would successfully fill up tubes on their own. The Australians during WWII had great success building small methane producing power generators...my father tells of taking a taxi ride in a methane utilizing (and underpowered, but still powered) taxi. You have to make sure no oxygen enters the reaction as methane producers, and compost reducers will be killed off by oxygen.

You should be able to add composting material on top of the heap to prolong the reaction a while longer before finally having to break down the pile, remove the new soil and rebuild it.