Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey all,

I have been looking and can't seem to find a thread, so I figured I'd start one. I would like to know of any experiences people have using a BSF or other composter as a heat source for a small greenhouse/ water heater.

It is my understanding that the BSF larvae need a certain operating temperature, and my assumption would be putting copper tubing in there to gather the heat with water would reduce this temperature drastically to the point of an inefficient composter.

I will be using Arduino boards to try to automate all everyday tasks with aquaponics, and my thought was to use this to stop the flow of water through the copper tubes once the composter reaches its lower operating temperature limit.

Is this something that can be done? Has anyone done it?

thanks in advance


Pete

And where would the copper tubes go once they have ben heated by the compost pile?

You can't run copper in the fish tank... and you can't run acidic AP water through copper tubes... back into the fish tank...

Forget the copper...

I have seen a couple build threads were people used the black pipe, and coiled it through the compost pile.

These guys apparently heated their whole enterprise with compost - but it took a phenominal amount of compost to do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng

(My apologies if you've already seen this - it is several years old.)

The copper is not for the ap, it is to heat the greenhouse the plants sit in. It will be it's own separate system

Wouldn't the compost pile within the greenhouse heat the greenhouse by virtue of being in the greenhouse? Why complicate it with pipes and electronics?

good point. eventually I would like to heat my hot water with something like this which is where the pipe idea came from. but for now. I'll have to play with sizes of compost to see how much i would need to heat the greenhouse during cold New Englad winters.