On 31/07/17 14:59, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 12:48:03 +0100, Tim Watts
wrote:

Hi,

It might seem like a silly question, but is there *any* likelihood of
one of these:

http://www.hotbincomposting.com/

catching fire of its own volition?


This affects whether I site it with my dalek bins under a low hanging
western red cedar tree whose foliage is likely flammable, or whether I
put it over by the fence (OK, the fence gets it, but fire won't spread
or get out of control).

I guess it depends on how risk averse you are. Compost bins do catch
fire, apparently http://tinyurl.com/yao4xyrt


Very risk adverse *if* the outcome is *bad*


Yeah - I found those two as well...

Interestingly, one was a bin and one was more of a pile albeit with
cover. Only one actually trashed the house.


It seems to be a problem that afflicts the massive piles at council
recycling places - there's even UK Gov H&S guidance on that.


I read somewhere that the spontaneous fires start due to a 2 way process:

1) Biological activity takes the pile to 80C - this is self regulating
as any hotter and the agents die off.

2) Chemical oxidation takes over at 80C and can start a fire - not being
self regulating.


From what I can see, 2 requires as fairly specific set of conditions:
dry materials (which may have been dried by stage 1), the right sort of
materials, lack of air flow and uneven mixing.


As usual one of your links says something like:

Put away from fences, buildings and in the shade.

Which would be impossible in most gardens - who's going to put it in the
middle of the lawn?


And there are 2 stories of domestic piles going up in the UK as far as I
can see, from the 100,000s or more compost piles and bins there must be
in use.


OK - by the fence seems to be the best idea - it's near the front road
so if it does go up and I'm away, someone will notice and I cannot see a
wooden fence managing to burn down its length to the shed 10m away - if
nothing else, the fire would probably block at the concrete fence posts.