Compost Powered Heat
Sean Dembrosky
Started today to sketch out plans for an experimental compost powered heating system to be used in our garage/shop this winter, and possibly routed into the basement to charge large cisterns of water with heat to create thermal batteries of warmth in the lowest parts of the home... This will be a trial in using as little tech as possible, and keeping the design as simple as possible so it is highly replicable, malleable and can be adapted to a wide range of uses.
Today was clearing the site, getting a base layer of chips down and sketching the pallets that will help hold in the material. How to store the hot water / transfer / etc. is to be determined, but thinking about burying a 275 gallon IBC tote in the middle, and insulating the outside with a ton of cardboard. I know it's not mega efficient, but it could be a good battery to store and a buffer against freezing... We'll see as we go!
Site to have compost pile... need to keep it off existing wood structure, which pallets and then scrap plastic will help with...
Rough area sketched out with 1/2 truck load aged woodchips as base, leveled and slightly pitched from the garage, and pallets behind to deflect and keep compost off wooden structures... We'll post more pics as we go!