Extracting Heat from Compost ?

[acresswell]

Teenagers discovered this years ago   

They feel the cold...     and that's why they keep their bedrooms and armpits so full of decomposing matter!
 

[Ivan]

My vision of the future: Every woodburner converted to or replaced by a composter. Instead of a bucket of coal or wood, you have a bucket of biomass - woodchips, leaves, grass whatever - and super-fast decomposing microbe 'accelerator which gets added to start the compost (akin to lighting the fire). Heat controlled by woodstove-type air vents, and instead of ash, each morning you remove the compost.

Maybe a little tongue-in-cheek