I first found reference to Jean Pain over at Lloyd's Blog the other day.Lloyd was amazed he'd never thought of Jean's idea and when you look at the simple concept, you might be wondering why you hadn't either.
Jean Pain, born in 1928 and died in 1981 was dubbed France's King Of Green Gold for very good reason.
This self-taught scientist's exciting and amazingly simple technique wrote Nicolas Poulain in 1981, may help to solve the world's energy crisis.
It just might do that and it would work wonderfully well for you and me.
There's more about Jean Pain here and here.
And now, just to get really enthused about Jean Pain's innovative hotwater system in today's world, have a look here at the Whole Systems Design's Vermont Hill Farm where they're using wood chips and horse manure with spectacular results.
Some knowledgable person once said that the answer lies in the soil...
I've actually been involved in an experiment with this at a fish hatchery back in the 70s. The problem we had was too much water running though the system. Kept the pile too cool to work right. It takes a lot well functioning compost to make this work.
ReplyDeleteThe fish hatchery wanted a lot more hot water than the system could provide.
I saw that too. It started my mind racing, wondering is I could use this idea to heat our boat...Sadly, I seem to be lacking my countryman's imagination...I can't see having enough space for a big compost heap on our boat!
ReplyDeleteAn interesting and challenging concept for a boat Joel. Who knows what a bit of lateral thinking may conjure up. Where there's a will there's a way...
DeleteWhat an amazing idea... And yes I do wonder why others, including myself, when I had a big garden and compost heap, didn't think of doing this.
ReplyDelete