What are you putting in your compost? Jean Paine's method was primarily saplings, ie. carbon-rich. You only get methane, nitrous oxide and hydrogen sulfide when you have too much nitrogen or sulfur in your ingredients. If you stay carbon-rich (woodchips and saplings) you should not have any of these gases- only CO2. I am building a compost heated greenhouse this fall and will let you know how it goes. Thanks for the great video!
Put hardware cloth fencing under the greenhouse to prevent rodents and snakes. We cover the floor and about three feet up the sides with hardware cloth
I'm wondering if the problem could be the solution with certain design features? I have a 3.25season greenhouse, high ceilings. I heat it occasionally in spring/late fall. It's heated by radiant heat(heating a rocket mass heater, and heating water). I was considering overwintering chickens inside and building a compost heater from the bedding in late Feburary. I'm wondering if its viable, in my system. Based on what you are saying, it seems like you would need an efficient system to harvest the rodents. I do have a good mouser. Maybe I should start feeding him in the greenhouse while making the pile. It seems like you would need good air exchange just prior to and when entering the greenhouse during the active phase. Which would mean venting the greenhouse shortly before spending time inside. Or maybe it could be automated by solar dc+fan above pile with lightly weighted flap to push flap open and exhaust outdoors during sunlight hours?) I like the idea because I have a need for CO2, a need for shelter for chickens, will have a bunch of manure and bedding inside of the greenhouse, and a need for compost in the greenhouse in March. It would make it far easier to design a system indoors instead of ~triple moving the material and dealing with moving/building in the snow.
Hey! I've been following your channel for a while and I can't stop wondering when are things going to get warm enough outside so you can farm in the open. Over here in Bulgaria in zone 6b things are warming up quite a bit these days. I sowed turnips and onions outside today. I wish you the best of luck all of your gardening endeavors :)
Here's an example of somebody who uses a hot bed using horse manure every winter successfully for his seedlings: Charles Dowding: th-cam.com/video/oX59chFvI44/w-d-xo.html Simple setup, no heat exchanger needed. It does require about a m3 (about 35 ft3) of horse manure though to get heat for several months.
That’s a great example of how to do it! I have watched Charles for years he’s a great teacher with a lot of knowledge. With my experiences we’ve found you can bury under soil to minimize the gasses given off, but no matter what we’ve had pests ruin crops and parts to our greenhouse due to the compost being inside as opposed to having a Jean pain pile outside
Yeah, we’ve done that before for our chickens when it’s negative 30 outside. For a human you could have some issues down the road if you breath compost and the moisture off of it inside an enclosed environment. Those gasses are given off by compost that’s science. Just making everyone aware that you can create a potential problem for yourself, thanks for your input!
lol, give em a spicy treat. Staying active and checking on the greenhouse occasionally definitely helps deter them from moving in and taking up residence. It’s a difficult task for us at time living out by corn fields
Yes and that works, but over years of doing this I’ve had many issues with rodents being super attracted to it. The closer the pile is to the greenhouse the more possibility that they tear up or dig their way in.
That’s one way but your still not achieving much without having some type of heat transfer system to actually move the heat from the pile to the greenhouse, or else your chimney would be acting like a stove and drawing your heat out with gasses. Plus you still have it inside and the rodents will chew their way in, believe me (from experience) thanks for the input!
I tried interior composting last year in the greenhouse. Never again. I have enjoyed your videos. I built a different version of a heater with water tanks in the compost pile instead of copper tubing.
We’re going to use a metal 55gallon drum for our center fixture inside the pile next year and possibly going to run two piles or a long caterpillar of a pile with several heat transfer systems through out and separated. Lots to come!
Are you sure those other gases,( methane, nitrous oxide, hydrogen sulfide) are created by your compost pile? My understanding is those are created when your pile becomes anaerobic however a properly aerated compost pile doesn't produce toxins. So, how sure are you on your science? I'm preparing to build a compost pile inside the greenhouse that is just large enough to heat it. It's completely sealed with hard polycarbonate walls. Not even roach could crawl through. The plan is to turn/tumble/fully aerate the compost pile and even have methane detectors
Yeah some people do that, now this is a Jean pain compost heating system. The pile is transferring heat to systems that bring the heat inside. In our small greenhouse the pile would get infested with rodents and it brought them in and out of the greenhouse. Having it separated was our best bet
What are you putting in your compost? Jean Paine's method was primarily saplings, ie. carbon-rich. You only get methane, nitrous oxide and hydrogen sulfide when you have too much nitrogen or sulfur in your ingredients. If you stay carbon-rich (woodchips and saplings) you should not have any of these gases- only CO2. I am building a compost heated greenhouse this fall and will let you know how it goes. Thanks for the great video!
Put hardware cloth fencing under the greenhouse to prevent rodents and snakes. We cover the floor and about three feet up the sides with hardware cloth
I'm wondering if the problem could be the solution with certain design features?
I have a 3.25season greenhouse, high ceilings. I heat it occasionally in spring/late fall. It's heated by radiant heat(heating a rocket mass heater, and heating water). I was considering overwintering chickens inside and building a compost heater from the bedding in late Feburary.
I'm wondering if its viable, in my system.
Based on what you are saying, it seems like you would need an efficient system to harvest the rodents. I do have a good mouser. Maybe I should start feeding him in the greenhouse while making the pile.
It seems like you would need good air exchange just prior to and when entering the greenhouse during the active phase. Which would mean venting the greenhouse shortly before spending time inside. Or maybe it could be automated by solar dc+fan above pile with lightly weighted flap to push flap open and exhaust outdoors during sunlight hours?)
I like the idea because I have a need for CO2, a need for shelter for chickens, will have a bunch of manure and bedding inside of the greenhouse, and a need for compost in the greenhouse in March. It would make it far easier to design a system indoors instead of ~triple moving the material and dealing with moving/building in the snow.
Hey! I've been following your channel for a while and I can't stop wondering when are things going to get warm enough outside so you can farm in the open. Over here in Bulgaria in zone 6b things are warming up quite a bit these days. I sowed turnips and onions outside today. I wish you the best of luck all of your gardening endeavors :)
We’re looking towards the spring farmers market already man the winter can be depressing! Thanks for watching.
Here's an example of somebody who uses a hot bed using horse manure every winter successfully for his seedlings: Charles Dowding: th-cam.com/video/oX59chFvI44/w-d-xo.html
Simple setup, no heat exchanger needed. It does require about a m3 (about 35 ft3) of horse manure though to get heat for several months.
That’s a great example of how to do it! I have watched Charles for years he’s a great teacher with a lot of knowledge. With my experiences we’ve found you can bury under soil to minimize the gasses given off, but no matter what we’ve had pests ruin crops and parts to our greenhouse due to the compost being inside as opposed to having a Jean pain pile outside
I donno about the poisonous gasses, but here its quite common to heat chicken coops with compost over the winter.. so far the chicken have been ok.. 😮
Yeah, we’ve done that before for our chickens when it’s negative 30 outside. For a human you could have some issues down the road if you breath compost and the moisture off of it inside an enclosed environment. Those gasses are given off by compost that’s science. Just making everyone aware that you can create a potential problem for yourself, thanks for your input!
Thanks for the tip!
Just trying to put my experience to practical knowledge thank you for stopping by!
I expected rodents to move in, but as far them eating my produce... I'm over wintering fatali chilli peppers and tree datura so... good luck to them.
lol, give em a spicy treat. Staying active and checking on the greenhouse occasionally definitely helps deter them from moving in and taking up residence. It’s a difficult task for us at time living out by corn fields
one guy piled the compost on one side of the outside of the greenhouse facing away from the sun.
Yes and that works, but over years of doing this I’ve had many issues with rodents being super attracted to it. The closer the pile is to the greenhouse the more possibility that they tear up or dig their way in.
What about a covered compost pile with a chimney?
That’s one way but your still not achieving much without having some type of heat transfer system to actually move the heat from the pile to the greenhouse, or else your chimney would be acting like a stove and drawing your heat out with gasses. Plus you still have it inside and the rodents will chew their way in, believe me (from experience) thanks for the input!
i cant handle the talking hands with the knee slap,.
❤
Awesome info 👍
much appreciated.
thanks bro ✌️
Keeping my viewers safe composting lol thanks for watching this one man 🤜
I tried interior composting last year in the greenhouse. Never again. I have enjoyed your videos. I built a different version of a heater with water tanks in the compost pile instead of copper tubing.
We’re going to use a metal 55gallon drum for our center fixture inside the pile next year and possibly going to run two piles or a long caterpillar of a pile with several heat transfer systems through out and separated. Lots to come!
Thanks for checking this one out!
Are you sure those other gases,( methane, nitrous oxide, hydrogen sulfide) are created by your compost pile? My understanding is those are created when your pile becomes anaerobic however a properly aerated compost pile doesn't produce toxins. So, how sure are you on your science? I'm preparing to build a compost pile inside the greenhouse that is just large enough to heat it. It's completely sealed with hard polycarbonate walls. Not even roach could crawl through. The plan is to turn/tumble/fully aerate the compost pile and even have methane detectors
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Dude I think you're supposed to have the compost up against the wall on the outside of the greenhouse for compost heated greenhouses. Sorry.
Yeah some people do that, now this is a Jean pain compost heating system. The pile is transferring heat to systems that bring the heat inside. In our small greenhouse the pile would get infested with rodents and it brought them in and out of the greenhouse. Having it separated was our best bet
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CO2 not great for you , but makes plants grow faster :)
Correct. At high levels in an enclosed environment it can be deadly..thanks for checking this out!!
Up to a point this is true
Mask was a nice touch 😂
Made ya click lol