Jean Pain "John Pan". One of a kind.

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If you've ever looked at a pile of horse dung steaming on a winters day and wondered ....

Well your prayers are answered.
Meet Jean Pain, a man who heated his house on compost.
His primary intention was to make soil better.
Click on the Twitter post for the full thread.

http://www.permacultureactivist.net/PeterBane/Jean_Pain.html

https://twitter.com/BuildSoil/status/1080640484190507008?s=20

Markcheese

Okay, I got a bit sick of the floofy bollox in the first paragraphs, but isnt this perfecting (?) composting and linking it up to a heat pump (not a bad idea),
I assume anaerobic digestion plants aspire to do similar,

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Markcheese wrote: »

Okay, I got a bit sick of the floofy bollox in the first paragraphs, but isnt this perfecting (?) composting and linking it up to a heat pump (not a bad idea),
I assume anaerobic digestion plants aspire to do similar,

That's what I was thinking about the heat pump. It'd be warmer than what heat pumps currently work off.
Anaerobic digestion the only difference is that they're anaerobic. I suppose bigger investment is needed for em and maybe for the pure soil aficionados aerobic compost trumps anaerobic.
Downsides for the aerobic is the odour potential and downsides for the anaerobic is the need for preserved feedstock.
What Jean was able to achieve with the one pile lasting 18 months was very impressive. Especially with no intervention needed.


Further down that Twitter link there's a YouTube link to an hour long clip fleshing out the idea.
There's a farmer has made a shipping container (I think) as a composting unit with a below floor aeration pipe to keep it going and he heats his workshop with the warm water going into an old tractor radiator in the shed with the fan attached blowing hot air in the shop.