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T O P I C R E V I E W
gabriele ault
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 08:06:11 AM A friend from another forum has been experimenting with horse apples as fuel for her woodburner.
I can announce that we have now completed our trial of dried horse poo as a fuel on our multi-fuel stove.
"100% Burns well, doesn't smell (not that we noticed, anyway), and keeps the fire in all night. If you only burn wood with it, you can use the ash on the garden / veg plot, or whatever, and put the nutrients back in the soil after extracting the energy.
I don't know what else there is to say, really.
Oh, the ponies were stabled on hay half the time and out on grass the other half of the time. I collected a few buckets full of 'kidneys', dried them and then burned them."
What do you think>
15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
flosskins
Posted - 28 Oct 2012 : 07:03:36 AM I'm tempted to do this as well but I really don't know how to dry it out, especially in this damp weather. Does damp poo burn or does it have to be completely dry?
delly-b
Posted - 26 Oct 2012 : 1:03:31 PM ok then.... i think we may be in for a little burning! watch this space! thanks
Judith S
Posted - 26 Oct 2012 : 09:10:28 AM Of course it will, it is just fibre.
delly-b
Posted - 26 Oct 2012 : 08:08:12 AM It maybe too early in the morning (and I have awake up since 5am as cant sleep) so please forgive me here....
Are you saying that if we just take dry horse poo we can burn it? .... I collect all my poo from the yard and put it in buckets for my aunty to put in her garden .... Am I missing out on free fuel then? If I just bucket it to dry, will it work?
Judith S
Posted - 25 Oct 2012 : 08:24:35 AM They shouldn't tar the flue if they are dry as there is no resin/sap present. I would have thought the best way to dry would be in a single layer as in a heap they will start to heat and will compost.
guisburn
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 7:58:42 PM What about tarring up the flue? I sadly also tried making poo bricks to burn , husband didnt know why we had rectangular poos laid out in his clean yard ....so swept them away together with my dreams of a warm poo fueled fire
gabriele ault
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 6:32:40 PM Some more info from same person on same website
"The first lot we used had just dried on the floor in the stable - bad me, never did the last muck out when I turned them out for the summer. When I wanted the stable for something else, I saw the cobs had dried on the floor, so rather than composting them I just popped 'em in a bucket and we burned 'em.
The second lot we burned I'd collected in the field when the weather was dry (when was that? - maybe March? or we had another few hot dry days in May I think), picked up the drier cobs and put them in a bucket. Stopped when the bucket was fulll as it was just an experiment.
The latter lot, the cobs at the bottom of the bucket weren't totally solid, you could still break them open and the insides were... not moist, but not totally dry, IYKWIM. But they burned just the same.
I don't know that people would need horse poo in briquettes, Karen - the cobs my ponies do are just about the same size and similar shape to the coal cobs you get nowadays, so we found them easy enough to have in a bucket next to the fire, and throw a few on as required.
In terms of how they burn, they have been used for the following:
get a smouldering fire going again - they did catch easily and burn well, so they did help lift a fire from the embers. I'd want to do a bit more experimenting before saying you just throw a few horse cobs on and wait, I don't think we tried them on their own to revitalise a dying fire keep a fire in overnight - the evenings we used horse poo, the fire stayed warm all night and there were warm embers in the morning that could've been reignited easily. Other nights, with no horse poo, the fire is always cold by morning. we didn't try burning horse poo on its own - it'd be worth trying, we just didn't try it; we added it to other fuel. Both wood and wood-and-coal burned significantly better (brighter and hotter) and hours longer with horse poo added I wish we had tried horse poo alone now - I'll try that next time. I was more excited about the way it will eke out your existing fuel - a little bit of coal will go a much longer way with horse poo added, horse poo will get wood which isn't burning too well going and keep it burning; and horse poo keeps the fire and room lovely and warm while you're out doing some work, so you come back to a much warmer house and less to do to lift the fire than without the horse poo. Similarly, if you like a fire full time, it'll keep the fire going overnight and be easier to restart in the morning.
Having proven the concept, it's the wholescale drying that's got me thinking... I can see how to dry smallish amounts, but I think we'll allocate a bay in the wood shed, pile good poos in there and see how it does. Once you've a system going, you'd be burning last year's pile while making this year's, I suppose.
The polytunnel idea is awesome. We don't have a polytunnel, but our neighbours do, they also have poines stabled overnight year round... I don't know if they grow things in the 'tunnel through the winter I guess we can spread poo out on the floor of cattle shed over the spring / summer, in the gap between lambing and cattle turn-out and when we start stacking hay everywhere... Yesss, I can see that working
In terms of drying 'free horse manure' - which is probably stable muckings out, including shavings, straw, etc - the mix is a compostable mix, so it would compost rather than dry unless you spread it out somewhere, like deep's fencing panels.
"
Liz100
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 1:22:33 PM We tried this last year with the paper press briquette maker thingy. OH thought it was a fantastic idea and if it worked he was going to invest in a big briquette making machine. Unfortunately, to get the consistency right for the briquette maker he found that the poo had to be as free of other matter as possible (ie picked from the field, not out of the stable), then mixed with water, which he did in an old bath, but it was a very messy business! Then he couldn't get the briquettes dry as the weather turned damp and we didn't have anywhere to store them. He took some inside to dry and when they were dry, which took ages, they did burn very well - smouldered away to ash so not much mess, but they did need to be burnt with wood not just on their own.
Unfortunately he left some inside too long and a load of flies hatched out, luckily when I was at work so he managed to get rid of the evidence before I got home.
The ones that were outside not drying did start to sprout vegetation, so we thought they might have an alternative use as compost bricks!
All in all an awful lot of effort and he seems to have given up on the idea now. If you had somewhere suitable to dry (a polythene tunnel with industrial blowers seems to be recommended) and maybe a cement mixer or something to do the hard work it might be more worthwile.
Paresh
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 10:44:56 AM i have read that stacking in a green house is good for drying them :) but we need sun to heat the green house to dry them, its something that has to be done the summer before you need them to allow them to dry out.
pendragon
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 10:41:26 AM I would be very interested to know how she dries it, I have thought of doing this before, I have a multifuel stove and lots of horse poo
Judith S
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 10:19:32 AM
Originally posted by sab2
How dose she manage to dry the poo ?
Probably has to dry it on top of the woodburner with the summer we have just had
sab2
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 09:45:36 AM I am sure my lot would keep a woodburner going as well How dose she manage to dry the poo ?
Paresh
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 09:13:17 AM oh I bought one of those paper brick making things for the OH a few years ago, its still in its box, never used, this would be a good way of keeping the muck heap down, and as we are bedding on shavings this year, it would probably be ideal to use in it :) must let the OH read this thread
Quarabian
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 08:55:11 AM Or a mammoth in th stables producing poo!
I bet my lot could be up to the task.
Judith S
Posted - 24 Oct 2012 : 08:39:50 AM I have seen an article somewhere about this and you can use one of those briquette-formers used to make newspaper 'logs' and dry them before burning, apparently it is an efficient fuel not dissimilar to burning peat. Unfortunately as our wood range burns a wheelbarrow of wood a day in the winter it would take a mammoth effort to keep it fuelled
watch this space! thanks
