5 ms·

Off-grid shower heated by compost

30 points by TimedToasts 5y ago

paulkrush 5y ago
Thanks for submitting! There was a lot of heat coming off that pile. Next step is to heat a hot tub.
- mkaic 5y ago
  that would be seriously impressive!
gnabgib 5y ago
(Video) would be helpful in the title. 70° off of compost is impressive.
mkaic 5y ago
This was such an interesting video, and was really well presented, too. Big kudos to the creator, I never thought I'd be this fascinated by a compost pile!
jazzyjackson 5y ago
well they don't call it a steaming pile of shit for nothin!
dzhiurgis 5y ago
You’d want an archimedes screw with some water channels inside to keep this moving forever. p.s. CDC recommend wearing gloves and mask when working with compost.
8bitsrule 5y ago
This is great. In the industrial era, the phrase 'waste heat' became widely used. In fact, in many cases it's actually 'wasted heat'. I'd bet we can remember old, and find many new, ways to conserve energy costs.
narush 5y ago
Highly recommend the other videos my this channel. Very interesting and wildly detailed presentations of different small-scale framing experiments!
perl4ever 5y ago
Apologies to those who have seen this factoid, but: "The power output of the core of the Sun is about 276.5 watts per cubic metre...around the same as a compost pile." https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/17/3478276.htm https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/17/3478276.h...
Andys 5y ago
With 9 cubic metres (3x3m pile) it can keep hot water flowing for hot showers for an entire winter season.
betwixthewires 5y ago
I wonder how difficult it would be to use this concept to heat a room.
- LinuxBender 5y ago
  This is indeed done for heating some greenhouses. You put the compost boxes next to the greenhouse and the greenhouse wall has a wire mesh and a sliding panel to control the heat exchange. Contact temperature can be 90+ degrees Fahrenheit / 32+ degrees Celsius. You can take it a step further and run large diameter pipes under ground 150+ feet or 45+ meters to bring the circulating ambient temperature to around 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius as an easier starting point to heat up, then recirculate some of the air with solar/battery powered fans. Directly heating a home in this method would not be ideal due to the gasses emitted from the compost. You would need an inductive method such as water or coolant shedding some of the heat from the compost using coils in glass to protect the coils. Between geothermal piping and inductive heating, you could probably raise the home temperature enough to bring the cost of the supplementary heating down significantly, assuming a small home.
Borrible 5y ago
It's a great idea and I have about one cubic meter of permanently composting material every year, but I don't shower in the garden and can't think of economically feasable use cases for myself. So I guess it's still just pumpkins in october and humus for the garden in spring.

30 points by TimedToasts 5y ago

paulkrush 5y ago

Thanks for submitting! There was a lot of heat coming off that pile. Next step is to heat a hot tub.

mkaic 5y ago
that would be seriously impressive!

gnabgib 5y ago

(Video) would be helpful in the title. 70° off of compost is impressive.

mkaic 5y ago

This was such an interesting video, and was really well presented, too. Big kudos to the creator, I never thought I'd be this fascinated by a compost pile!

jazzyjackson 5y ago

well they don't call it a steaming pile of shit for nothin!

dzhiurgis 5y ago

You’d want an archimedes screw with some water channels inside to keep this moving forever. p.s. CDC recommend wearing gloves and mask when working with compost.

8bitsrule 5y ago

This is great. In the industrial era, the phrase 'waste heat' became widely used. In fact, in many cases it's actually 'wasted heat'. I'd bet we can remember old, and find many new, ways to conserve energy costs.

narush 5y ago

Highly recommend the other videos my this channel. Very interesting and wildly detailed presentations of different small-scale framing experiments!

perl4ever 5y ago

Apologies to those who have seen this factoid, but: "The power output of the core of the Sun is about 276.5 watts per cubic metre...around the same as a compost pile." https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/17/3478276.htm https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/17/3478276.h...

Andys 5y ago

With 9 cubic metres (3x3m pile) it can keep hot water flowing for hot showers for an entire winter season.

betwixthewires 5y ago

I wonder how difficult it would be to use this concept to heat a room.

LinuxBender 5y ago
This is indeed done for heating some greenhouses. You put the compost boxes next to the greenhouse and the greenhouse wall has a wire mesh and a sliding panel to control the heat exchange. Contact temperature can be 90+ degrees Fahrenheit / 32+ degrees Celsius. You can take it a step further and run large diameter pipes under ground 150+ feet or 45+ meters to bring the circulating ambient temperature to around 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius as an easier starting point to heat up, then recirculate some of the air with solar/battery powered fans. Directly heating a home in this method would not be ideal due to the gasses emitted from the compost. You would need an inductive method such as water or coolant shedding some of the heat from the compost using coils in glass to protect the coils. Between geothermal piping and inductive heating, you could probably raise the home temperature enough to bring the cost of the supplementary heating down significantly, assuming a small home.

Borrible 5y ago

It's a great idea and I have about one cubic meter of permanently composting material every year, but I don't shower in the garden and can't think of economically feasable use cases for myself. So I guess it's still just pumpkins in october and humus for the garden in spring.