uses of a woodchip pile

[treedom]

How hot does a woodchip pile get and what can you cook in it?

 

Apart from heating water/cooking something slowly, is there a way of converting the energy in a woodchip pile into anything?

[rupert w]

I was told by a friend that houses in Finland had been built with a bunker for chip to heat water,sorry to be so vague but can't tell you any more,it was a long time ago.I would like to know more about this myself,fantastic idea if it actually works.

[Buzzsurgeon]

Mine was probed at 70 deg c

[Ty Korrigan]

I've just delivered a load of chips for a guy to use to digest the 'solid matter' in his organic toilet...

Ty

[Gary Prentice]

A contractor mate looked into this as a heat source to raise water temp. for his imported Koi. If the temp stays up over the winter they continue to grow.

 

Problem was the chip cools if it doesn't get agitated. Maybe the conditions get anaerobic and the decomposition slows. Put a jar of water into a chip pile one morning and it was almost too hot to touch by the end of the day.

 

Sorry but that hasn't answered your question!

[NoRush]

I've put a water pipe in mine when i last moved it. Its surprising how hot it gets. Going to use the heat to warm the workshop. I hear that a thick layer in a polly tunnel with a good layer of soil is good for growing soft veg in winter

[treedom]

Surely the heat could be transferred to the logs to dry them out somehow?

 

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2

[NoRush]

I was going to say that but didnt want to tell every one. Under floor heating just like in houses or a couple of radiators placed in middle of your log pile. Under floor would be best as heat rises

[Dean Lofthouse]

I looked into this years ago and was advised that if you run pipework through the pile, you are removing the heat which will make the microbe action less efficient, unless you can have a slow constantly renewing process.

 

I would imagine the only way to extract heat efficiently without affecting the microbes would be to have it enclosed and extract the heat given off by the pile from above it ??

[renewablejohn]

Do a google search on Jean Pain who was the Guru on this sort of thing heating his house and extracting enough gas to run his 2CV car. Word of warning he did die very young possibly due to fungal spores.