On 22/08/2020 20:31, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Fri, 21 Aug 2020 17:03:41 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

I have a green bin for cutting the village hall green and it was brim
full fresh cut yesterday. In 24 hours it is now 40C and 80% full so by
next week I expect it to be about 40% full and ponging a bit of ammonia.

The wind and rain today have taken too much heat out of my open compost
heap so it is nowhere near to going hot yet. Doesn't smell right.

Useful comments. Thanks. I may try one, and if it doesn't compost its
contents fast enough, I can either just put the excess into my green
bin (which is actually brown!) or buy a second composter. I have a
slight concern though, that if the contents get too hot they'll catch
fire in the centre and actually destroy the bin. Time will tell.

I doubt if it can get that hot in the limited volume of a green bin but
even if it did then I expect it would self limit for lack of oxygen.

I think it has happened to me about three times in 25 years with 2m
cubic heaps pretty full with a large addition of grass cuttings in one
go. Getting above 60C is fairly routine in high summer but becoming hot
enough to smoulder internally is incredibly rare.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown