5．Compost-Powered Showers
5．堆肥热水器
Proximity to your compost pile may not be preferable here, but many people have found ways to build shower systems using their compost.
离堆肥堆太近可能不舒服，但很多人还是找到了用堆肥的热量烧水洗澡的办法。
Some methods are as simple as coiling the majority of a length of hosepipe inside the heap and fitting a showerhead and stand to the other end. In this case, the effort of maintaining a compost heap outweighed the benefits of the warm shower it produced. Solar panels proved to be much more efficient and just as green.
有的办法很简单，就是把软管的大部分卷起来埋在堆肥里，然后在另一头接上淋浴头和支架。这时，维护堆肥堆需要的努力就盖过了用它烧水的好处。太阳能电池板同样环保，却要高效得多。
Permaculture teacher Darren Doherty was far more successful. By burying a 2-meter (7 ft) by 2-meter (7 ft) heating system in his compost and combining that with a solar heating system, he was able to produce up to 150 liters (40 gal) of hot water at one time. On average, that's roughly enough water for over 20 minutes of showering or two hot baths.
永续栽培教师戴伦·多尔蒂就成功得多。他在堆肥堆中埋了一个2乘2米的加热系统，并将其与太阳能加热系统相结合，这样就能一次加热150升水，平均够洗约20分钟淋浴，或两次盆浴。
4．收获甲烷
Direct contact with your compost may not be your cup of tea. Luckily, heat is not the only by-product of the composting process. When done right, compost also releases methane gas. This relies on maintaining a balance in the compost between acid-producing bacteria and the methane-producing bacteria that eats it.
你可能不想直接和堆肥打交道，幸好热量也不是堆肥过程的唯一副产品。如果不出错，堆肥还会释放甲烷气体。这取决于堆肥中产酸菌和产甲烷菌之间的平衡。
Methane is often harvested from landfills, which produce enough gas to power 8,500 local homes in some cases. There are also examples of a number of farms, such as Green Mountain Dairy in Vermont, which are producing electricity for the grid from the methane released by manure.
甲烷通常从垃圾填埋场收集，有时足以给8500户当地居民供能。还有一些农场，比如佛蒙特州的“绿山乳品”，就在用粪肥释放的甲烷给电网发电。
On a smaller scale, the Urban Farming Guys have built what they call a "methane biodigester." Simply, this is comprised of one cylinder (or barrel) of compost with a smaller cylinder placed upside down on top of it. This serves to capture the methane released and to pressurize it. A pipe is attached to the methane chamber at one end and to a stove or generator at the other. With this model, methane is steadily produced for 7–8 weeks.
规模较小的“城市农民”则建立了所谓的“甲烷生物消化器”。简单地说，这是一桶堆肥，顶上有一个倒置的圆筒，用来收集和压缩释放的甲烷。甲烷室被管子同炉子或发电机相连。这个模型能稳定生产7到8周甲烷。
This seems to offer the best of both worlds: cooking from the by-products of your compost without the inaccuracy (or residual smell) that comes from burying your food in it. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from doing both at once.
这样似乎就综合了两个世界的优点：用堆肥的副产品做饭，同时又不会有埋食物带来的不精确或异味。当然，你也可以埋一些，做一些。
3．驱动汽车
In the 1970s, Frenchman Jean Pain developed various ways to run the majority of his home from the energy produced by his compost heap. With the organic waste he produced from maintaining his woodlands, Pain fertilized what became "incredibly prolific gardens." He also ran a compost water heating system—one that was capable of warming a 93-square-meter (1,000 ft2) home.
1970年代，法国人吉恩开发了许多方法，来让家里的大部分能源都来自他的堆肥堆。他用保养林地时的到的有机废物给花园施肥，使其“令人难以置信地多产”。他还建立了一个堆肥热水系统，能给93立方米的家供暖。
On top of this, Pain developed his own air heating system. He buried heat ducts inside one of his compost piles, with entry and exit pipes that ran directly into a building.
此外，吉恩还开发了自己的暖气系统。他把暖气管埋在一个堆肥堆中，出入管道则直接连在建筑中。
His ingenuity didn't stop there. He also made use of a methane-harvesting tank and ran water cooling pipes around the outside of it to regulate its temperature. With this method, Pain was able to heat water for his house and productively collect methane from his compost heap.
吉恩的创造力并没有就此止步，他还把水冷管缠在甲烷收集罐上控温，这样，就能给房子热水，并高效收集堆肥堆的 甲烷了。
This produced 1.4 cubic meters (50 ft3) of gas per day. From this, the Pain family was able to power the appliances in their house and run their Citroen 2CV truck, giving it enough fuel to drive 100 kilometers (62 mi).
这套系统每天生产1.4立方米燃气。吉恩家用它们给家电供电，还能开雪铁龙2CV卡车跑100公里。
2．Heat Your Swimming Pool
2．加热家庭泳池
To loosely reimagine Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a compost mound, we're coming pretty near the top with this list. From the domestic success of Jean Pain, we must move firmly into the realm of life's luxuries. So once you've had a nice, long, compost-heated shower and feasted on the scallops you've retrieved from your steaming heap, where do you go next?
当我们用堆肥堆粗略地重新定义马斯洛的需求层次理论时，就接近了这份清单的顶点。看完吉恩的家用成功，我们必须坚定地进入生活奢侈品领域。用堆肥热的水洗个长长的澡，再享用一盘堆肥蒸气中收获的扇贝，接下来你会去哪？
Gaelan Brown's recent book, The Compost-Powered Water Heater, offers a practical introduction to DIY compost heating systems. Among others, one of Brown's suggestions is to build a system that can heat your pool for free. Now, the idea of lounging by your perfectly warm, refreshing pool on a hot summer's day need not be marred by a stinking pile of compost. Brown stresses that the compost heating system has the added benefit of reducing obnoxious odors.
盖南·布朗的新书《堆肥式热水器》为自制堆肥加热系统提供了实用的介绍。布朗的建议之一就是建一个可以免费你家游泳池的系统。这时，在炎炎夏日享受温暖清爽的游泳池，并不一定要被臭烘烘的堆肥堆破坏。布朗强调，堆肥加热系统还能减少异味。
While a compost-powered hot tub might be out of the question here, a heated pool is still pretty luxurious.
虽然堆肥动力的热水浴缸在这里应该不是问题，但温水泳池还是太奢华了。
1．A Renewable Energy Source
1．可再生能源
Taking their influence from Jean Pain's innovations, a number of groups have been exploring the wider potential of compost's by-products as a renewable energy source.
受吉恩启发，一些团队一直在探索堆肥副产品作为可再生能源的广泛潜力。
The University of Edinburgh's School of Engineering developed a compost heat exchange which was capable of producing water at 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit). When they tested it against similar solar and ground source heating systems, the compost system provided the most reliable supply.
爱丁堡大学工程学院开发了一种能把水烧到60度的堆肥热交换器。他们将其与类似的太阳能和地热能一起测试，发现堆肥系统的供能最可靠。
There is also the Compost Power Network, a not-for-profit organization that researches compost heat recovery and has collaborated on research projects with several universities. They have been developing Pain's methods and are working on safe compost-based energy systems that make renewable energy possible in tandem with nourishing the land we live on.
还有非营利组织“堆肥电力网络”，他们研究堆肥热的回收，并和多家大学有合作研究项目。他们一直在发展吉恩的方法，并致力于安全的堆肥供能系统，以在实现可再生能源的同时，还能滋养我们生活的土地。
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