Last year we filled up our propane tank, figured we would get through much of the winter with it, and was blissfully happy until we checked the tank in January and saw we were nearly out! We had a wood/coal stove, and were going to press that into service, but that had rusted out, so in 3 feet deep snow, dragged an old stove of my Grandmother's out of a snowbank and managed to use that all winter, burning the firewood she had in her basement. She has been dead for 10 years so she really did not care. So this year we vowed to be in a better spot. And we are; I need 4 cords of wood to get through the winter and I have 6-1/2 cords, a ton of coal and a full tank of propane; yes three sources of heat! Now it has been unusually cold here, but in the interest of saving our firewood, and the fact that Katie hates the mess of firewood and was grumbling about it the same time she dropped a stick of wood upon her foot; we have been burning exclusively coal for most of the winter thus far. So our house averages around 84 degrees much of the time. That means the propane boiler has not come on at all. So we were going to go to the outlaws house (also known as the inlaws) for Christmas, so decided to fire up the back up heat which is radiant floor heat powered by our propane boiler. That was well and good until all the loops were flowing except two: it could only mean one thing...they were frozen! I really never gave it much of a thought, our house is 84 degrees all the time, but with standing water in pipes along the outer parts of the floor, it apparently got cold enough to freeze, especially under the kitchen cabinets where it is hard to get the heat to. What to do? I had to not only keep the cold out, I had to get heat in. Well one of the ways we keep water from freezing out to the barn is to pack sheep compost around the pipe. The compost is so warm that it will melt the snow on top of the pile and averages around 140 degrees. Having a commercial sheep farm, I took my tractor and pushed sheep compost around the edges of the house on the loops that were frozen. Two hours later I hear the flow of water start as the ice chunks melted away and started moving throughout the system. An interesting solution to say the least; it could have been really bad!
I was just reading a couple weeks ago how using compost for heat was gaining some traction. Very interesting fix, LodgedTree!
Years ago I looked into building a Sterling Engine, powered by ice and compost heat to power a generator, or to use the heat to warm up the radiant floors of my house. I was talking to a Maine Planning Commission member at a fair and he told me it would never work, but if I ever did, to give him a call. Seems a guy in France called Jean Pain has been doing that very thing since the 1970's. There is a lot of heat in compost. It is only 140 degrees, but it is like that 24/7, unlike wind or solar that is unpredictable.
There is one additional use for sheep poop that some might find helpful. It was told many times, as the truth, that a family not far from where I grew up had insulated their old two story farmhouse with sheep poop.
Hey, sometimes chit happens and you need to ewe what you need to ewe. I'm sure you'll sheep easier while you are away knowing that the house is warm.
Yes it was a stretch to put it on this sub-forum, but a condensation propane boiler is about as close to "gasification" as I could get. As for sheep manure, I was always told that for whatever reason, sheep poop has excellent insulating properties.
IDK, didn't find anything in a google search. I'm thinking the wool holds heat way better than the manure. Butt I will say, that any insulation is better than none! So in that case, yes there is probably some R-value in manure, imo
There's other things you can do with sheep chit. Icelandic micro-brewed sheep manure smoked IPA selected as one of world’s wackiest brews I have a friend in Iceland who brought me to this brewery when this beer was being perfected. The guy in on the right in the photo told a long and funny story about a smoke house filled with bags of grain while being smoked over sheep dung. And the trial and error process of figuring out how much sh-it was necessary t get the right flavor. And yes I drank it.
I know the best garden I've ever had was planted in/with very old sheep chit. The Sweet corn looked like field corn @ 10-11' tall.
I have been told that if a person buries underground pipes with sheep poo they will not freeze. I have done this for years and can say it is true. I am not sure if it is because it is in pelleted form unlike other livestock, but it does work. For a firewood forum, and people not wanting to spend buco bucks on insulated pex tubing for their outdoor wood boilers it would be worth doing I think.
Run a coil through the pile and make er your primary source of heat, burn the frozen stuff in the owb
Well the way I heard it was, "this older guy at work during lunch would always pull a baggie of sheep pellets out of his lunch box. Eventually a young worker asks, what's in the bag? Older guy replies, smart pills. Younger guy says, hey, send me a handful down. So this goes on for a couple of days and finally one day the young guy didn't ask for any. Older guy says, hey, you want some more smart pills? Young guy replies, Nope, they taste like chit! Old guy replies, see, they are working already!!!!!!"
