Re: an other composting experiment

Dan:
	My experiment to heat a cold frame with the heat of a compost pile does
not use air.  I'm planing to put a garden hose inside the cold frame under
6 inches of soil and running the hose into the hot pile.  The water inside
the pipe, inside the pile, should heat up and travel to the cold frame
where it would cool off and circulate back to the hot pile, etc.  I know I
can make it work mechanically and like last year I know I can keep the temp
of the piles at an average of 130-150 for up to six weeks. However, I what
I don't know is if the soil in the frame will get to hot, how many feet of
hose to put inside the frame, etc.  That is the experiment part.  
	Does anyone know how hot electrical heating cables get inside a frame? and
how many feet of cable do you put into a heated frame?
	I don't use thermal glass for my frames or any other fancy insulation
system.  That's to expensive, but I am changing them over from glass to
plexi as they break.  If it looks like it's going to get to cold at night I
simply cover the frames with some thick canvas.  It was good enough for my
grandfather, etc. He used to make hot beds with horse manure, but I don't
want to deal with anaerobic composting, that's way to scary for me now that
I understand the science behind it.
	130 degrees is an almost perfect temp for a compost pile.  Not so hot as
to burn off N and yet hot enough to give you fast compost.  By April you
should have wonderful compost just in time for pumpkin season.
Michal in Akron
mcohill@neo.lrun.com	

----------
> From: Dan Shapiro <dgs@leland.stanford.edu>
> To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
> Subject: Re: an other composting experiment
> Date: Monday, January 12, 1998 2:19 PM
> 
> Michael - I'm sure a dryer would heat a cold frame ... as an idea, build
it
> with a large face to the sun and insulate the top.    I'm not sure you
> could use a compost pile as the heat source - you could mechanically
> extract heat by sucking air through the pile and delivering it to the
cold
> frame, but that might extinguish the compost.  Might not tho. 
Regardless,
> it would be a great garden contraption!
> 
> Bought a compost thermometer and measured the pile today ... it read 130
F.
> I took your suggestion and covered it with plastic since we're having a
> week of rain.
> 
> 	Dan
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
> message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index