Wow....the pallet composters look really good!
How do you get your hands on the pallets?
I'm sure i could give it ago!! hammer and a few nails!!! and logical thinking..........right??
Now i know what the holes are for in my compost bin! i thought they needed to be kind of air tight and kept in dark!
thanks!
I'm of the view that bins should be solid and without side holes, or any holes at all. The principal factor in getting material to rot down is
heat. Sure it needs to be damp (warm and damp and thus sweaty) and it needs to have regular oxygen to maintain the fermentation, but the former is easy enough to induce by sprinkling (and urinating on) and the latter is achieved by regular turning, which is part of the whole process anyway. It's easier to add moisture and oxygen than it is to add heat in the event of a cold heap, and so the trick is to conserve the heat as much as possible. It is the UK after all and apart from a really hot summers day, the ambient temperature isn't enough to get an open or exposed heap really heating up.
Another trick, especially in a really big heap that is rotting quickly and heating up, is to insert a couple of good lengths of plastic pipe (downspout) with decent holes drilled in it all along the length and around the circumference, enough so that they reach the middle of the heap and poke out the top and so are vented to open air. They will act as effective ventilators as air can be drawn down the pipes into the middle of the heap.
You need a heap heating up to almost 60 degrees C (which is about what they'll go to, all conditions being ideal) for maximum efficiency. This is more or less the temperature of a hot bath. Only after about 53 degrees (I think) do certain bacteria emerge that then begin to feed on the previous bacteria and partially rotted material and really accelerate the process. Other than in extreme conditions of heat these bacteria never see the light of day and we may rarely encounter them. Nonetheless they are aparently dormant everywhere. Apparently (the last I read about it) scientists don't actually fully know where they come from, where they go, how they remain dormant and unseen, but they are there lurking as micro-micro-organisms with immense energy potential if you can build a hot enough heap.
Into the centre of a heap, insert a length of metal pipe (scaffold or what have you) and go for a potter about for 15 minutes. Come back and remove the pipe and the business end should be hot enough to almost burn your hand - hot enough to be uncomfortable anyway.