I burned some poo bricks!!

[jill]

I made some about three or four weeks ago (you remember, we had some decent weather???) and left them to dry. Once they were dry enough to handle I brought three box fulls (about 20 bricks) and stored them in my boiler room. It houses my oil boiler and is always warm in there, and it opens outside so no risk of poo smell in the house
They burn really really well - once they are dry they are very lightweight, and catch and flame well. I suspect one or two have been slightly less than dry in the middle so they smoulder more, but I have some cut up pallets and between the two they get the wood burner really hot. Well worth doing IMO - it is getting expensive and not easy to find dry wood these days as a lot of it is going to biomass boilers.
So now you know how I will be spending the summer

[HolsBols]

How do you make poo bricks?! Recently got my first ever log burner which I absolutely love so any ways to get free heat is top on my to do list :-)

[freckles]

Good to hear how they went, Im going to make some this year, should be able to dry mine out real easy in the summer (Im in Spain, roasting in summer, freezing in winter) and should be a lot easier and safer then chainsawing logs...

[kizi]

Ooh so can I use them in my wood stove? I wonder would I need to put the grate back in for burning them..... It's out as I only burn wood now, but the grate is meant for multi-fuel use..
How did you make them? Please tell!!! Do they burn quick? I imagine they would? I couldn't store a huge amount inside at a time, my logs are out in a shed and I usually bring them in a day before I use them, they're dry but cold and only cut a few months ago so must be pretty dry in the shed.. I'd love to burn poo, save trees, reduce muck heap, kill any worms... And sort of free.. What better way to heat!!!

[jill]

I acquired a briquette maker from a freeycler. Starting with a plastic barrow full of poo out of the field (no bedding) you have to mix more water with it and mash up or somehow lose the lumps (lumps tend to fall off), I can do all that in the barrow. Then just make bricks with it in the briquette maker and put to dry - I have some plastic perforated trays I inherited with the house which are really useful. While it is fresh it smells a bit so I leave them in one of the stable buildings until they are dry enough to pick up without disintegrating. Then I just bring the tray full home into the boiler room and wait until they are really really light and dry.
Apparently some people just collect the lumps, dry them and burn them.
Kizi they burn like wood, to powder, so to grate or not to grate would be trial and error. My grate is there for wood, because the air flow over the top of the wood isn't great, so with the grate it comes through from underneath.

[kizi]

Really.. I'm relatively new to lighting the fire! (No heating!!) but the stove is a double double and burns so so much, anything free would be just lovely!! I am finding without the grate I'm going through less wood though! I think it'll have to be a summer project for next winter!!!
Right.. Off to do some googling!!

[HolsBols]

Fab!! Thanks so much for the info. will look into this one with my OH-he's all about the free burning!!

[diggydoggy]

Thank you! I've got a new woodburner too - and access to "take as much as you want" muck. Must be worth a try!

[Louise C]

Alison?

[kristine]

4 horses would do good for a cozy house! Can't save too much money these days... impressive!

[sned]

I have worked in builder's merchants for years I'm saving up the skids and spacers from the dressed timber for camping as it's untreated I'm sure if u ask they will happily give u them xx