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O/T Heating with Horse Manure/Compost

T

tg in VA

Member
Have any of you all ever tried heating with manure/compost?

I notice when I sell compost that even the old stuff at the bottom of the pile steams. I was thinking that I could coil a 100' section of 4" non-preferated plactic corrugated pipe and fill/cover it with fresh stable litter (we clean 47 stalls every day) which would be manure and sawdust. Pipe one end into the crawl space and put a low speed blower/fan on the other end and just let the manure warm the downstairs.

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions.

Thanks
 
The Amana colonies generates electricity from the methane of their beef operations. I would imagine they put the manure back on the fields.
 
A friend in upstate NY tried that. Problem was how to refresh the manure without disturbing the heating coil. She abandoned the effort.

For getting as much conduction as possible, have as much area of contact as you can manage. Plastic isn't ideal, but will work. The link below will allow you to compare different pipe materials.

Before I spent much time creating this, I'd take a look at quantifying the heat available to determine if it would make a significant heat source.

Good luck.
Thermal Conductivity
 
Yup, like Tom said, the problem is renewing the poop. It's only heating when it's breaking down. Once it becomes compost the biological activity stops and so does the heat. Thats why you have to put new poop under the hotbeds each spring. But for a limited period you'd have some nice warm water.
 
I saw something like that a few years ago in the FarmShow Magazine I think. They had built a special barn to compost in and the floor had a radiant heat system in it, they were using it in reverse, collecting heat under the slab and piping it into the barn for heat. With this setup they were able to turn the pile and keep the heating process going.
 
They are trying to run generators off the methane gas from a manure pit.

It has proven to be not very successful.

One generator may run a few hours a week.

Money pit.

Gary
 
Gary,

That is down in your neck of the woods. I knew they were putting it in, have not heard since then.
 
Good idea, I cleaned out our old barn, piled huge pile of manure with straw, in a 8' x 8' x 4' pile, and had it steaming for some time, breaking down. Problem will be renewing the manure, without destroying the tubing.
Other problem might be at 3:00 am "Honey I'm cold, go out in the snow and get the front end loader and renew that 3 tons of manure."
 
Gary,

I know that the manure/methane system works,

there is a large dairy operation near here that

is running a large generator on methane. It is

115 kw with an 817 cu in waukesha engine running

24/7. I have their spare gen set in for overhaul.

george
 
Might have to get creative, like was said below, renewing it, and or I would have to say aerating it, it needs that to get hot or it just caramelizes, you definitely can get the heat and if you have the volume, its the above that is the obstacle, turning it over, not disturbing the pipe, you would have to figure a way to get around that. I considered it, we used to have huge piles of it, lot of heat if you aerated it.
 
(quoted from post at 01:38:02 07/21/14) Good idea, I cleaned out our old barn, piled huge pile of manure with straw, in a 8' x 8' x 4' pile, and had it steaming for some time, breaking down. Problem will be renewing the manure, without destroying the tubing.
Other problem might be at 3:00 am "Honey I'm cold, go out in the snow and get the front end loader and renew that 3 tons of manure."
Click to expand...

8x8x4 is not a "huge" pile. I've seen that come out of one big box stall. "Huge" is when you have to plan out 2 weeks of spreading day after day...
 
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