poo power

[donjuedo]

Perry525,
That makes sense. I suppose you could insulate the tank, and only remove heat when the temp is above 95F.

I wonder, though, how many watts are we talking about, per person flushing?

Peter

[Tyofwa]

Looking through a book I have on self-reliance, there are really detailed designs for constructing methane capturing systems for animal and human waste. The methane digester will enable the production of enough methane per day from the following sources:
1 chicken: 300BTU - 1/2CF methane
1 human: 600BTU - 1CF methane (enough to boil a pot of water)
1 cow: 4800BTU - 8CF methane
1 pig: 5400BTU - 9CF methane
It affirms the earlier statement that the digestion process work best closest to the temparatures of the body, and recommends insulating the main tank for best effeciency. The book is "The Self Sufficient Life" by John Seymour.


Hope that helps!
/Ty

[Eco Island]

wow thats alot of methane from a pig compared to cow or human.In my mind I figured a cow would produce more.
I read an article about a farm that gets all its power from the the cow poo.

[houndog1970]

Perry525
It is important to understand how a septic tank works. The microbes from our gut continue their work in the septic, turning our waste into mainly methane and carbon dioxide gases, and others, this process creates heat. If you take away the heat they create as part of the process, then they slow down the conversion, when they get cold the conversion stops. These microbes prefer a temperature of 95f, to work at maximum efficiency. If you remove part of their heat in your experiment, a greater part of your waste will not be converted to gasses, the septic will fill and your costs will rise, via the emptying process.

so would it be possible to run insulated pipes in the ground through the top of the tank allowing the inside temp to heat the pipe, and have it natrually flow upward into the house? Or have some small 12v fans pull the air through the pipes slow enough so as to not change the temp of the pipes enough to change the temp in the tank and disrupt natures process? Im not scientific enough to figure out all the mathmatecal equasions involved but seems like it could work. I havent checked ed's link yet to see what pipes he was referring to either.

[rckclmbr428]

more then once I stuck my arms elbow deep in the manure pile to warm my hands when we had horses, that stuff puts out some serious heat when you get a pile the size of a small house...

[happyquilter]

And then the discussion stopped.... lol!