Big Steaming Pile: Off-Grid Space Heating with Compost
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- Опубліковано 7 кві 2017
- Heat your off-grid space with a giant pile of compost! We built this Big Steaming Pile in the fall out of 16 tonnes of old hay and it heated the shop all winter.
This was our first attempt and we had a few setbacks but still managed to get consistent heat for the last four months.
This channel should be topping the charts! The content is 100% awesome and the family life is AMAZING! I know everything isn't peachy behind the scenes but I must say, I envy the hell out of you all! Great job!
Wow, thank you Paul!
might have to wait 6 month for a video..... but the wait is always worth it.... LOL. You guys are such a hoot..!
This might just be my new favorite UA-cam channel.
I look forward to the day when we all get the big steaming pile we deserve.
the two of you are such a character! looking forward for more vids!
Man when I watch your videos I really miss my Canadian family you keep me smiling
Who would have thought!! Great idea, and you have a great source of composted material for garden, thinking a rubber membrane underneath to channel the fluids into basin to be used as compost tea for gardens
HAAAA! You are all turning into a bunch from the Ozark. Great fun and lots of science used in this. I agree with Paul Curry. This is at the top of the charts. Lots of family fun, and it is just down to earth. Keep up the good work on raising the family. We have 6 kids (5 girls and one boy). One of the girls is married and our son is also. Life is good. Family forever!
I'm grateful to you and your wife for raising your babies the way you are.
Awesome morning
That's very interesting, I'm hoping to do a good sized greenhouse into the side of a hill and was thinking of a way of heating it. This has got me thinking. Thanks. PS Dave seems like a fun guy. Good to have such friends.
Thanks so much for sharing!
First time I have heard or seen anybody try to use the heat from a compost pile to heat a building. This is amazing!
I love this compost heating system.
Its really amazing.
That is amazing!!!
It was a nice and fun video, thanks for posting it.
Very nice update.. :) First once since I've subbed. I binged on all of your videos. I love em!
"Everyone needs a big steaming pile!" 5:24 I will see to it! This is so important to know, just the knowledge. Thank you and you dealt in Celsius too, such a progressive and accommodating system of temperature measurement with 0˚C meeting the freezing point of water, and 100˚C the boiling point of water. Simple, spread the knowledge Jeff.金
kenneth keen they are Canadian, of course they would use the metric system
I'm an organic farmer who makes my own hot compost. This is ingenious. Subscribed
You have a very cool energy, and seems like it would be a lot of fun to hang out with you and garden or something else outdoors/creative. Thanks for the inspirations!
Nice work!
I had a big steaming pile a few years ago I need to make another 1 this year, I covered it with tarp and lay on it to keep warm the cats also liked it!
Nice to hear that there are other big steaming piles out there!
Gridlessness I just uploaded the video of my tiny steaming pile,
Not as impressive as yours but it's what you do with it that counts!
I can see how this will work as long as you have the hay to compost.
I heated our hoop barn green house all winter by putting a 12' high compost cone on one end.
It stayed green all winter and never froze in northern New Hampshire.
Great video guys loved it!
I built a raised bed inside my greenhouse and filled it with compostable materials and I have been using it to thaw out my animals water bowls and to help heat my greenhouse. We are planning to build a mini greenhouse over the raised bed and starting some greens and some seedlings inside it.
Awesome job guys. Love it.
😆 I think I found my next comedy routine!
What a brilliant way to warm your property cheaply. Would love to know how long a pile lasts, and how much overall energy is possibly drawn from such a source?
They act simple...but they're so damn smart....I love them
Wow!the content is 100% awesome! and the Family life is amazing!love from Philippines.!👍
just found your channel. I love it.
Thats a pretty good idea actually. If you laid down a coil of 4 inch flexible pipe then dumped a truck load of woodchips on top of it in the fall, The pile should get warm enough to heat a small greenhouse or cabin through the winter months.
Then the chips could be used as a deep much in a garden through the following summer. Just need a small fan to pull the hot air through the system.
Shouldn't need a fan, the temperature difference should create an airflow
Hahaha you guys are funny!!! "it burns"!!! Your daughters and wife are gorgeous!!
Angela from Los Angeles California
love your video's, i gotta say totally impressed by your girls, they will truly inherit the earth 👍😊
Well said...
That big steaming pile is the best place to grow potatoes ! Great videos and hope everyone is doing well .
Yes! My squash and basil also loved it!
Haha I like you guys so much. You two are neighbors? How lucky to have two goofballs loving next to each other in the great outdoors 🙂
Lol, havin' a drink in the big steaming pile ... love it!
Using only hay like that is actually extremely dangerous. Even with the moisture, it can catch fire very easily. That is why you never store wet hay bales inside, they will spontaneously combust. Glad its working, but hope you understand the risks as well.
Funny AF thanks for the education and humor.
I always wondered if this would work, thanks.
When are you taking the comedy tour on the road? Excellent video, great content and funny as anything!
LOL love it! God Bless guys
Nature is amazing to say the least.
I have to agree like another viewers...worth the wait!!!
You two bestards are awsome.
Remember though that occasionally you have to turn the pile to reintroduce oxygen. Once the oxygen is used up the compost will slow down in the decomposition. Great channel
Did you see the perforated air tubes at the bottom of the pile?
@@markroeder2491 I agree, I saw them, but if you want the best compost it is best to have air throughout the compost pile, passive air movement is not as efficient as compost does pack down
If you let too much oxygen in it'll either burn up too fast or overheat and kill off the bacteria. You kind of need it to slowly smolder not burn away
From what I have read, once you turn it the oxygen is used up almost immediately. The benefit seems to be in incorporating the outer "fresh material" deeper in.
I don't know how you keep coming up with these but please don't stop! Had me laughing for sure!
Glad you liked it!
The title is awesome
Everybody needs a big steamy pile
Once a compost heap really starts working, the heat it generates is quite remarkable. Years ago, I watched a show on TV and I can't remember if it was a gardening show or a cooking show, but the host of the show baked a ham in his compost heap! He wrapped the ham tightly in several layers of aluminium foil and then buried it deep in the compost, then he went back later and dug out a perfectly baked ham.
😶
That was awesome
You've done it again. Very interesting, entertaining, and funny too. Jeff and Dave are a great comedy team!
I'm waiting for the Gridlessness mini series, or maybe a full length motion picture at a theater near you.
Thanks again, and Best Wishes to you all...
Hahaha. You never know, I guess!
Construct a poly-tunnel on top and you'll have a nice winter green house.
Sarah is a real treasure 👌
The absolute best thing about your compost heater is you will have an awesome compost to use to amend garden beds. Just beware of fire if it gets too dry.
I was thinking that pile is a bit too close to the building just in case it combusts spontaneously.
@@elizabethfletcher1487 yep. But if you keep it damp there shouldn't be a problem.
cool idea
Everyone should have a bug steaming pile.....at least once a day...lol
Simply Unbelievable!!!
You were the first to inspired me to do my own Big Steaming Pile! LOL (My wife laughs at the name too. lol) I'm just about done now after day 8 of work so far and three weeks of research. lol Posting videos as I go, come take a look and tell me what you think. 🙂
This is so cool... Er, warm? A great use for old nasty hay! Do you have any favorite sources for how to build these systems of will you share more about how you did it and how you are improving on it? I found your channel last week and love it. We are off grid too and I'm finding your videos inspiring and yet hilarious.
Just wow amazing nothiing els
This channel is awesome :D Keep going guys! (Y)
Thanks!
Works well with Woodchip too.👍
i discovered this channel when you posted this video on permies.com . so awesome, now im very inspired to try it myself. also your production value is epic! why do you only have 840 views?!?!
Thanks, and I don't know, I guess I have underdeveloped promotional skills.
Great job! Are you in Canada? Love your family- getting the kids involved- work ethic. The best people to work with grew up on farms.
Hope you guys are still posting, great videos!😀
Hey Catharina, I'm glad that your enjoying the videos! We are still posting videos, as often as we can!
Liked, shared and commented
good video thx
What a great ideal....... well other than the egg! LOL
You should also look into Geo thermal cooling. Same concept but hoses go into the ground. Can be used in summer to pull cooler temps from ground and vice versea in the winter take heat from the ground. This is still great info
supper nice
you guys are cool
Nice video!! There should be a follow up to the spent steaming pile.
wow / very nice / i love it :)
And I bet you could grow some amazing squash in the spring
Ok, loving your channel. Have one question on your big steamy pile, how long will it be until you need to dig up and rebuild your compost pile to maintain the efficiency?? Best guess as I’ve kind of looked but can’t find how long one will last.
Dawson creek B.C
In all actuality you could use solid wall 3"-4" corrugated tubing in the steaming pile, and attach the high side into the upper part of the wall and the lower/bottom of the pipe into the bottom of the wall, since heat rises, it would creat circulation and would heat the shop.
Are you guys still running a hot water compost pile thanks. Great video love it.
This is really cool, if you threw chicken/animal poop on top I'd bet you could reach the true hot compost level of 150 degrees on the water
I'm so inspired and impressed by this. Great job! You are SO funny! (I'm assuming it really does include manure)...it looks like you have WAY more hay/straw than we've been putting in ours (compared with the amount of manure)...and yours works REALLY well! So awesome!
Would you say you have a certain ratio that you go for, or is it just "by feel", and if so would you mind describing that "feel" a bit?
Hi, thanks for the comment and the questions. Actually our pile consists of only silage and hay. No manure. The more silage the better!
Is there water in there as well?@@Gridlessness
10 point for the dirty clean jokes your doing good
I do this with grass clippings from yards I mow during the year...
how hot it gets?
LOL, I have a pile not as big, I am tempted to put an egg inside to see if that will cook though!
Wow this is great.
Never done this but I’m assuming it would be better to have the coil off the ground. I’d design a cylinder type coil in the middle going up and around the pile to make it more beneficial as the heat rises
I think the bottom coil is for air
I'm like #1000 for the big steaming pile. 🤣
nice
Amazing video. Did you guys build another pile. How long did this pile heat your shop. Thanks
The drain tile was for carrying the warm air out or was that to carry cold air in to the pile and the 2" coil was for carrying the warm air to the shop???
DON'T MAKE ME WAIT THAT LONG EVER AGAIN!
Hahaha! We'll do our best!
Perct 👍✌✌
I know this video is over a few years old, but I was wondering if this is still how you hear your workshop or if you have changed heat sources. Yes? No? Sort of?
It's all B S man. Well, maybe 10% is. Kinda makes ya look forward to being in a world of s--t. Thank you and good night everyone, next show tomorrow at 9.
Wow!
I’m trying to figure out how to get our pile steaming! What is your recipe??
Hahaha, that was funny. Nifty idea. Next winter a decent path? Lol
That would be a great idea!
Does anyone out there know roughly how much length of pipe you would need to lay in such a pile to get the water to optimum heat after circulating?
I need one in my apartment 🤔
Awesome idea!
What system did you use in the shop? I am very interested in putting one on my property!
You should pitch a tent on top.
As it breaks down will make great soil add chicken poo and horse brick make even better just more heat with the poo just an idea but you video was very entertaining thanks
Have you thought about capturing the methane that is released from your big steaming pile? I don't know if there'd be enough to do anything with, just curious.