Stop turning it so much would be my best guess about why it doesn't seem hot. The really hot stage of compost often doesn't last very long so you might be just missing it the day or two after you add food scraps. A gallon of food scraps can heat up if mixed with some carbon materials and allowed some air (I found this out in my worm bin.) Since you are saying it doesn't smell and seems to be breaking down, I'm guessing you probably have more high carbon material than you think. We have a continous compost bin, which means we dig a hole in the hot top center, add new high nitrogen materials and cover over with high carbon materials like leaves. I have a compost Thermometer and we will start getting warm with far less than the cubic yard of material you are tallking about, our pile when still small is usually around 130 degrees F in the hot top center when new materials get added. Our pile gets minimal stirring as we don't turn it. Here is a link that might be useful: Backyard Compost Thermometers

We just turn on our air conditioner and put the fans on. I do most of my prep during the day, and then start running the canner at night, usually around 9. Peaches and tomatoes are coming in. I'll spend one night peeling - since I use the boiling water plunge. Refrigerate over night. Then I'll can them up the next evening. I throw romas into the freezer - since I make sauce out of those. When they come out of the freezer, the skins slip right off - so no boiling required. I don't even package the tomatoes - just throw them whole in my freezer basket. I don't worry about freezer burn since they are only in the freezer about 24-48 hours. This year I'm going to try freezing my peaches that are destined for peach sauce.

angiepangie: "I have been making dilly beans and pickled beets by just blanching the beans, boiling the beets- and pouring over hot seasoned water and vinegar mixture. I keep them in the fridge and then are eaten within a couple of weeks or months. I've always heard that you are supposed to heat process things or you could get sick. However this is the method my grandmother uses and I've never gotten sick with it....." "...Please don't tell me to invest in a canner and learn how to heat process! I don't have the money to do so, no matter how cheap- I only come across organic beans and beets etc every so often, and only make pickles a few times a year. my basic question here is, can I just pickle up all these beans by blanching, then hot vinegar/water/sugar/spices- and leave them in the fridge indefinately? I don't want to make my family sick." Have you ever tried to lacto ferment your dilly beans? This was actually my first year at fermenting raw unpasteurized unblanched live Fortex beans and we like them nearly as much as we do the half sour/full sour cukes; I served them at a cookout last weekend and they were a huge favorite with most of the folks there. It's soooo easy, and absolutely no heating energy or special equipment is required; they will keep for months in the fridge, and they're not only 'safe' for your family, they are very nutritious for them also. This is the basic recipe I followed: "These pickled green beans make a tasty snack anytime of the day…they have a wonderful garlicky taste and are a great little “finger-food”. I like to grab a few straight from the jar and munch on them….betcha’ can’t eat just one Recipe type: Lacto-fermentation, Appetizer, Condiment Serves: 1 quart Ingredients ¾ to 1 pound fresh green beans 1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced pinch red pepper flakes 1 teaspoon dried dill OR 3 to 4 sprigs fresh dill 1½ Tablespoons unrefined sea salt 2 cups filtered water Instructions Place half of the sliced garlic to a clean quart-sized mason jar, followed by the red pepper flakes and dill. Snap off the stem-end of green beans. Blanch green beans in boiling water for 2 minutes, then immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water until no longer hot. Drain the blanched beans well and pat dry with paper towels. Add green beans to your jar, stem-end down, packing them close together….it helps to lay the jar on its side at first. Fill the jar completely with the green beans, but do not pack them in too tight. Sprinkle remaining garlic slices on top of beans in jar. In a bowl, or large glass measuring cup, mix together the water and salt. Pour this mixture into your jar of beans to cover, being sure to leave 1-inch space from the top of the jar for expansion. (If the brine does not cover, simply make up another batch using the same ratio of salt to water.) Place lid (preferably air-lock lid) on the jar tightly. If using air-lock fill with water according to instructions. Allow to ferment (culture) for 3 days at room temperature, checking after day 2. When they are done, the beans will smell and taste “pickled”, but they should still be slightly crisp. Remove air-lock lid, if using, and replace with storage lid ��" transfer to cold storage." Here is a link that might be useful: Lacto-fermented “Pickled” Green Beans This post was edited by sidhartha0209 on Tue, Sep 10, 13 at 21:33

I've been looking at the same thing here the past few weeks. One thing that caught my eye was solar air heaters. They are glass over a dark surface metallic, an place for air to circulate and a warm and cold vent. I thought perhaps the same thing could be done with window coverings. ( curtains and shades ) A black layer toward the glass, a metallic layer then a light layer inside toward the living space. You can find NASA space blankets, for the metallic fabic for about $2 in the sports dept of most dept. stores. The other materials can be purchased easily. I'm trying it now. I put white cotton roman shades in the master bedroom today and put a metallic layer between the fabric folds. Next I'll put a black layer on the outside that I can remove in the spring. Below is the site that gave me the idea. Here is a link that might be useful: Clear dome solar space heaters