Our work with www.CompostPower.org is heating up with several projects happening in VT, MA and NH this fall. We've finally figured out how to manage the details to make this concept work in a predictable way, and this winter there will be several systems in use to heat greenhouses and buildings.
The best example yet is a Compost Power project that was integrated into a radiant-floor heating system and a solar hot water system in New Hampshire. Cecil Smith of Polar Solar did this project by himself in one day with a small tractor. He learned how to do this by taking my CompostPower class through Yestermorrow.org. See pictures below.
This system is producing 20,000 btus per hour so far, on a 24/7 basis, which should be enough to provide most of the heat needed for the house. The 80-gallon storage tank is being maintained at 140 degrees by the circulation from the mound.
We've published a DIY design guide at www.CompostPower.org that outlines the details of how to do this. The key is to get aeration under the mound, which enables a chimney-effect to aerate the entire system to feed the microbes in their respiration process that generates heat. We've had success with fresh shredded bark mulch, or a mixture of wood-chips, sawdust and manure. Vermont Compost now makes a "Compost Power optimized mix" of shredded bark and some mature compost blended in which generates 140+ degree water and very high quality organic compost 12 months later.
Another recent project of high interest is the Compost Power system we built for Hartshorn's farm on Rt 100 in Waitsfield, which will be used to heat the seedbeds of a 75-foot long greenhous this winter. See local news-article about this project below.
Compost Power is a growing network of composters, greenhouse-builders, engineers and forestry-perma-culture experts who are available to consult on projects people want to do. There are lots of ways to adapt this concept to various needs using various feedstocks. One of the members of our network has also purchased a high-capacity chipper that can make small-diameter chips out of trees/slash which can then be used to make Compost Power systems. He's willing to bring the chipper to your site for a few hundred $ per day, and the chipper can make 10+ cubic yards of fine-grain chips per hour. Most systems need at least 30 yards of material depending on the amount of heat/compost you want.
This concept has a lot of R&D ahead of it BUT even the current low-tech design works well and only takes one day and a few hundred $ in plumbing parts to make.
With several VT/NH media outlets having covered our projects, I have to admit I'm surprised that there are not more people latching onto this as a short-term "lifeboat" strategy. Who doesn't want affordable, fossil-fuel-free, combustion-free heat while also turning forest-waste into high-value organic compost!?!
Corporate America is unlikley to provide you this concept in a pretty box with a ribbon on top...for now it's DIY or remain a victim of the fossil fuel industry. Your choice.