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Compost: The new slow cooker?

Posted by beneficial_nematoad (My Page) on
Thu, Nov 11, 10 at 21:10

So my friend who is relatively new to composting was real excited by the heat being generated in his new wire compost bin. He was showing me pics of the steam rising in the cool morning air and describing the warmth he felt when he stuck his hand into the pile. I told him to be careful, it can reach 140 degrees or more in there. The next day he comes home from school (a teacher) and buries an egg down in the pile. Early the following morning he pulls out a warm, nicely cooked egg, which his wife quickly snatches in favor of the cold hard-boiled egg she was going to eat. Now he's thinking bigger: a foil dinner? Thanksgiving turkey? rig up a blower and heat the house? Anyway, we're both wondering: has anyone else out there tried cooking in their compost pile?


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Compost: The new slow cooker?

I keep threating to I think it would make for a great conversation piece at a dinner party


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RE: Compost: The new slow cooker?

There has been research into capturing the heat generated by a working compost pile for many uses, however most people find that this heat is too short term to be a viable use. You could buld a biomass digester which would allow you to capture the methane gas generated by the anaerobic digestion and since that can be stored, and that digester can be made to be a continuous, rather then a batch dighester, that would make the gas more long term.


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RE: Compost: The new slow cooker?

  • Posted by pt03 3 Southern Manitoba (My Page) on
    Fri, Nov 12, 10 at 8:00

For school tours, bury a can of ready-to-eat soup in a hot pile. While the kids are there, dig it out, pull a spoon out of your back pocket, pop the lid and eat. Almost without exception, girls go "EEEWWWWWW", boys go "COOOOOLLLL" and teachers laugh.

Hey, us whackos enthusiasts have to find entertainment where we can. ;-)

Lloyd


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RE: Compost: The new slow cooker?

There was somebody who posted here a few years ago about using compost to help heat a house and/or provide heat for hot water. I think they had water pipes running through the compost and then into the house. I think they posted a followup and said that it was more trouble than it was worth, but it was a while ago and I forget the details.


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RE: Compost: The new slow cooker?

A Frenchmen named Jean Pain met all his energy needs with compost.


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RE: Compost: The new slow cooker?

In the garden structures forum, there was a guy maybe two years ago that built a greenhouse that was supposed to be heated in the winter with an underground compost bin within his insulated greenhouse. I don't remember how it turned out, and I can't seem to find the thread now.


Also, hotbeds have been used for centuries! For those who don't know a hot bed is essentially nothing more than a cold frame, however, under the growing medium there is a large deposit of compost (traditionally I believe it is horse/cow manure and straw). The growing medium is usually 6-12 inches thick.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cold frame and hot bed link...


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RE: Compost: The new slow cooker?

Very funny that you posted this, I wad telling the better half that I was thinking about putting foil packs in my compost as it was keeping temps of 140-160 for a few days.


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