The aeration manifold was placed in the center of the biomeiler and the wire frame for the inner core was set over it. The distribution hoses were arranged so they will release air in 6 locations about 36” from the center, 60 degrees apart from each other.
The aeration manifold is almost at the bottom of the inner core. A 1’-thick layer of wood chips was piled over it. At that height, I added a thermocouple to measure the temperature at the center of the inner core. A layer of grass cuttings from the field across the street and a layer of litter from the coop was added and the core was filled with more wood chips to a height of 2’. The process was repeated until the inner core was filled to a height of 4’. The next thermocouples were placed at heights of 2’ and 3’ at the center of the inner core.
There will be two ways to extract heat from the biomeiler. One way will be with water circulating through PEX pipe. I purchased a 300’ roll of 1/2” tubing for that purpose. It takes 48’ to reach the part of the coop where I intend to build the pumping apparatus. After measuring that length of tubing, I wrapped the next 68’ of PEX around the inner core in an upward spiral. The spiral began about 1’ from the base and ended about 3’ up. It made about 8 loops.
In the future, I will try not to deal with PEX pipe outdoors in mid-October. It was quite a wrestling match. I knew better than to make a Slinky coil of it. So, I fastened it to the side of the inner core and tried to carefully unroll the piping around the pile, stopping to fasten it whenever it seemed to need it. Unfortunately, in the cold, the tubing had remarkable spring tension and would pull itself out of my fingers while I was trying to twist the fastening wires around it. Grr!
Such infinite patience you needed to create this piece of equipment. How often do you plan to strip down and rebuild this?