After I added the last wood shavings to the biomeiler, I began the activation process. According to the thermocouples, the pile has been inactive since it was assembled. No part of the pile measures hotter than 32 F. That was partly strategic. I wanted to begin with a non-composting pile so I can rule out […]
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Finishing the crust and covering the insulating the top of the biomeiler was going to require more shavings than I had in the storage bin. So, I got a load of shavings on Saturday and added them to the biomeiler on Sunday, after I got home from church. It was good that I got the
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Getting the PEX pipes into the coop without drilling holes in the walls was the goal. My solution was to use my angle grinder to cut flaps in the wye fitting outside the coop and in the air duct inside the coop, before the intake fan. The cutting went pretty smoothly. Fortunately, the wye fitting
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To measure temperatures in the biomeiler, I buried thermocouples in strategic locations. This is an ideal way to measure temperatures in such a situation. The way a thermocouple works is that two types of metal are welded together and that junction is placed at the location where the temperature is to be measured. At
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The last layers contain a much greater volume of material than the inner and outer cores. It has taken days and I’m still not done. Inner core – 28.3 cubic feet Outer core – 84.8 cubic feet Mantle – 141.3 cubic feet Crust – 197.8 cubic feet Total volume – 452.2 cubic feet or 16.7
After completing the insulation work on the pipes, I began work on the last layers of the pile. Thermocouples were placed in the mantle at heights of 1’, 2’, and 3’, at a radius of about 48”. The ventilation pipe coils around the pile at a radius of about 54”. Between the outer core and
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The chicken coop has two 4”-diameter air vents. Each vent has an inline duct fan capable of moving air at 100 cubic feet per minute. They are arranged so one fan pulls air into the coop and one fan pushes air out. The volume of the bird quarters is a bit under 900 cubic feet.
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The outer core was assembled in almost the same manner as the inner core. The inner core has an 18” radius, while the outer core has a 36” radius. Thus, the outer core has twice the circumference and three times the volume of the inner core. The PEX pipe was wrapped around the outer in
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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
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As mentioned previously, the 2024 version of the biomeiler will have an aeration system in order to keep the oxygen level of the pile high enough to maintain aerobic decomposition. Today’s task was to build the manifold that will redirect the incoming air to the proper locations in the pile. The aeration manifold receives air
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