Home & Garden Home Heating Your Shower With Compost (Video) By Sami Grover Writer The University of Hull University of Copenhagen Sami Grover is a writer and self-described “environmental do-gooder,” now advising community organizations. our editorial process Twitter Twitter Sami Grover Updated October 11, 2018 Migrated Image Share Twitter Pinterest Email Home Green Living Pest Control Natural Cleaning DIY Family Thrift & Minimalism Sustainable Eating I've written before about how to make a hot compost heap, and I've been known to explore navy showers as a way to lessen your environmental impact too. But what if you could combine the two? Specifically, what if you could heat your water using the excess energy produced by a hot compost pile? It turns out you can. Composting Water Heaters Not NewInspired by a Frenchman called Jean Pain, it turns out that using compost for heating your water is not new, nor is it particularly high-tech. I've seen a few examples of Jean Pain-style composting/heating systems on various permaculture projects before—most notably the one being used at green t-shirt printers' TS Designs headquarters to heat their biodiesel brewing process. Small-Scale Jean Pain Composting Water HeaterWhat I'd never seen, however, was a compost/water heating system that was quite as small as the one in the video below (Pain's original was 6m in diameter and 3m in height). Introduced by permaculture teacher Darren Doherty, this particular system is only 2m x 2m in size. Used in conjunction with a tankless solar water heating system, Doherty says they can get 40 gallons of hot water at one time. Of course the green zealots out there might argue that that's way too much for a single shower—but it looks like Doherty is also following the best green shower advice of all—never shower alone.