Hey gardenerds, It's Christy Wilhelmi from Gardenerd and today is a very auspicious day
because I have standing next to me here Oskik Efrati, the CEO of Home BioGas, who happens
to be visit Los Angeles from Tel Aviv.
--Yes.
Israel.
--How exciting!
So I have a load of questions.
And people have been asking for a follow up video on how the Home BioGas is working.
And you can see it is full right now.
It is, right now it is May and we are enjoying some lovely weather and it's been doing its
thing.
So I have my list of questions here but the first thing I want to address is the biggest
question I've been getting is, "How is the system working?"
So I have a couple questions for you but I'm going to take this one first.
The first thing is that we've been using it, okay.
I just want to say that.
We've been boiling water for tea, we've been making eggs and stir frying and all kinds
of stuff out here.
I will say in December, well, November we stopped feeding the biogas unit.
We were actually...um...kind of paring it down for the winter because the instructions
say not to feed the unit if temperatures are below a certain temperature.
Do you know what that is?
--Yes, I use Celsius, so I need to convert it to Fahrenheit.
But in the winter when the temperature goes down, you need to reduce the feeding.
You can continue feeding but less.
--Oh, so you can still keep feeding it.
Okay.
--The good news is that in the second year that it's working, it's more stabilized, so
you can almost feed it normally.
---Year round?
--Yea.
--Oh, very cool.
Okay, but we stopped over winter and then for Christmas camera man gave me an aquarium
heater.
He's waving from behind the camera.
And we put that in in late December or early January.
And it took awhile to get it figured out.
To dial in the heater to see where it was actually working because it was in the tube
mostly and it would sense that it was hot enough and it would shut off.
So we had to lower it a little further, a little further, a little further until finally
it was heating the right thing which is this whole unit down there.
So then, we started feeding it around March and we've been using it ever since.
So it filled up pretty quickly and we're using it.
My next question and I have notes.
The question that came in was the HomeBioGas cooker - the stove top...is what type of cooker
is it, what the question.
I think they're asking about you know, how is it set up for biogas?
--Sure.
So biogas is consists out of 60% methane.
CH4.
Methane needs a bit more oxygen than LPG to burn.
So it needs big holes to burn.
This stove, the one that we are giving in the box, are made for biogas.
Actually you can take any LPG stove or natural gas stove and just take the disk...the disk
is where the gas is coming out...you can screw it out and then it actually...this is the
way to convert a normal stove into a biogas stove.
--So you don't even have to get another part, it's just loosening it?
--You just take it out.
You just take the disk out and then you'll have bigger holes, so more oxygen can connect
to the gas and you convert it into a biogas stove.
---Very very cool, so that's hopeful for those of you who have camping stoves that you want
to convert them to biogas.
Very cool.
Next question.
Someone was asking if there are issues with pests and rodents.
Now we have the biogas unit right next to the garden.
We have rodents in the garden, and we have opossums, we have raccoons, we have squirrels,
we have rats.
And we are trapping the rats, the rest are living their lives.
But we have not, I mean you said you came here and you saw how clean everything looked.
--Looks great.
--Yea, and so we haven't had any issues with nibbling or poking holes or anything.
I'd like to hear from you.
What kind of testing did you do on the materials against those kinds of things?
--Yea, sure.
So first of all, yea, rats and other animals doesn't get close to it, doesn't harm it.
And we have already thousands of thousands of systems out there in more than 100 countries.
--Sweet, that's exciting.
--And I think there is only one case from all those thousands of units where something...ate
it.
We think that the reason is animals have a very very sensitive sense of smell.
They understand that this is a living machine that creates gas, so they just leave it alone.
--Well that makes sense.
I'm sure I would if I were an animal.
I would not get near the giant gas bag, as we call it.
I want to back up a little bit.
I was very excited about Home biogas when I first saw it on the Kickstarter campaign
and I wondered what is it that brought about inventing this product.
--That's an interesting story definitely.
The short version of the story is that Yael, my partner, co-founder, was traveling in India
and saw a biogas system in India.
Got to a village and saw that they have gas.
He asked them how come you have gas?
So they told him, "Come to the back, we'll show you.
We have a biogas system."
So they showed him the biogas system.
It's called Gobar gas.
It's concrete dome built underground, a huge one.
It's a traditional way to build biogas systems.
They are around 50 million concrete domes like that in India, China, Africa, and he
was amazed.
We were students.
We were learning biology at the time.
And while he was traveling in India, I already invented my first product which is for another
story.
--Oh, to be continued.
--Yea it was successful.
So we learned a lot about product development and when Yael came back from India he told
me you know how to develop products, let's make a biogas system that will be easy to
use, it will be easy to assemble, that everybody can put it in the garden.
They gobar gas, the concrete dome takes about 3 weeks to build it and it's very very expensive.
--And it's concrete.
--Yea.
So we loved, I loved the idea.
I started to build one in my backyard.
And then the second one, and the third one, and the fifth one.
And at some point people started ordering.
And the vision that guided us all the time is to make biogas affordable, available to
all.
And the challenge is huge, the challenge is huge because there are 3 billion people around
the world, which is a lot, that still cook on open fire.
--And that's very dangerous and toxic for them because they are cooking indoors mostly.
--Yea, it's the number one cause of death now in Africa.
Cooking.
One hour of cooking is equal to smoking 400 cigarettes.
--Wow.
And we know that the most radioactive place in the world is inside a smokers lungs.
So quick smoking, hey.
All right so anyway, I digress.
That's a serious motivation and I can see how it would've been something that you would
act on.
So it's good that you did.
Alright, so when I started the Kickstarter program, I got my order in and then we had
to wait a little while before it came out, before it was ready to ship.
How fast are you shipping these days?
--Yes, so today if you order you'd probably get it next week at your house.
--Oh my god.
--And yea, the Kickstarter helped a lot because from a small, very, very small company.
Like 5 people, we grew up really really fast.
From a few units to thousands of units, and we established a factory, and we now have
more funds to invest in tooling and injection molding and to make it actually a better product.
We're working now on another version that will be, the focus was to make it even more
affordable even for the people, poor people in developing countries.
To use only recycled or recyclable material to make it durable and that it will last at
least 15 years which is very challenging in a product that stays outside.
--Right and it's plastic.
It's hard because it photodegrades over time.
So that's a good challenge though, how is it going?
--It's going well, it's going great, actually.
The first products are already ready.
We are now starting to work on new production line for the next model, the next version.
Yea, so we are growing, we are developing new products thanks to the support of amazing
people like you.
--Aw shucks, well speaking of new products, I have to throw my request in there because
we've got the stove and it's great.
And I know that you also make a composting...well it's not a composting toilet it's a flush
toilet that takes the humanure into the biogas unit, that's amazing.
Are you working on an oven by any chance?
--Not yet.
--Okay, I'm just going to ask right now.
So, oven for baking...for baking.
That's my..
I'm just going to say that.
People are asking about, and I am wondering too, about maintenance.
I know that the instructions say that every 3-5 years you're supposed to clean out the
sludge in the bottom.
That sounds so messy.
So what does that really look like?
Can you give us some tips?
--Actually, we have first of all, I think we took it out of the instructions already.
--So I don't have to drain the sludge all over my yard?
--Yes, we actually checked a system that works already for 5 years and when it's working
good, like when it's working as it should, there's no need to clean it.
There's no need to clean it.
We even took the drainage outlet out from the new product.
--Really?
--Yea, because we discovered that we thought it will be a must, but actually the good news
is that it's not a must and it's working really well and we, of course, came to this conclusion
after checking a system that are working already for a few years.
--That's so exciting because honestly I just...I contemplate on some sleepless nights, how
are we going to drain this thing?
---Yes so the good is you don't need to do it.
--So glad.
--And actually it's...when you use it on a daily basis you start to feel it, it's like
a living creature.
It has a mouth, it has a stomach, it has...you know.
--Yea.
---Lungs.
--Yea, and it was gurgling.
I don't know if you could hear that through the microphone but it was glurg, glurg, glurg,
glurg, glurg and it's putting out fertilizer on the end over here.
Oh, and you told me a trick about the fertilizer, the liquid fertilizer while we...before we
were shooting, can you share that with everybody?
--Sure yea, you can use the liquid fertilizer for enriching the compost.
It actually bring nitrogen to the compost and it's accelerating the whole process.
The results are amazing and it's...you will see it very, very quick.
After a few days of using it you will see the results.
It will become like forest hummus.
--Humus, I'm saying Hummus, but I meant Humus.
[laughs] Sorry, a little cultural slip of the tongue there.
So anyway.
--You can use it if you are composting the fertilizer is a must, you must try it.
Put it on the compost, you will see the results immediately.
--Nice, alright so we will try that.
Okay and to round out this video, because we're not done yet, is to share with you a
quick meal.
The first time in the previous video we boiled water which was oh so exciting.
I mean it was at the time, but now we're moving on.
So we have fresh eggs from our chickens, we have dill, parsley, and chives from the garden
and we're going to crack those and put them in and make a quick little scrambled eggs.
So they're tough...the shells are very tough on our eggs because they're very healthy.
All you have to do is just drop the...this is total not cooking...I mean you know, we're
just breaking up these [herbs] into the egg.
Some salt.
It's amazing.
And I'm going to turn...yea they're really dark aren't they?
And this thing lights by itself, which I love.
--It's so yellow, these eggs.
--The yokes are very yellow.
--It's amazing.
--That's a healthy chicken.
And the table is not quite level so things are happening, but it usually takes me about
a minute and a half to cook eggs in the morning on this and we have a little bit of a breeze
today, so it's blowing the flame away a little bit.
But it's pretty good.
It's already starting to set.
Would you like to... here, you wanna do this?
What do you like to cook on your biogas stove?
--Oh we cook everything.
-Yea --we cook 90% of our meals.
We are 4, we have 2 kids, and 90% of our meals are on biogas.
--That is not bad.
90% of his meals are on biogas.
--Sometimes we're out, so we have LPG as a backup.
For the last 6 years.
--6 years, that is amazing.
--For 6 years, we haven't replaced our gas cylinder.
Amazing, ah?
--That is amazing.
These look close to done.
About 45 seconds you can have a meal.
Looks pretty good.
Okay.
I have...
Do you eat eggs?
--Sure.
--I totally forgot to ask you if you even eat eggs.
Here I'm going to turn this off because it continues to cook, you know, whatever is in
the pan will continue to cook after you turn off the biogas.
And here you go.
Alright.
And it's going to be hot.
Alright, cheers to home cooked on home biogas.
--Yes.
Thanks.
--Yum, I love dill.
So good.
Dill, parsley and chives, best thing to put in eggs ever.
Anything else you want to share with the Gardenerd audience before I let you go?
---First of all, thank you for watching us, thank you for following us.
I want to strength (encourage) you to keep on supporting us.
It's not only supporting us, you're supporting a large community of people, we are working
now in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, we're starting now in India, Senegal.
All those places we are working with families that earn less than $10 per day.
--Wow.
--Yea, and of course the price on the website and the price that they are getting is...we
are actually using the money that we are getting from people it's not a must for them to subsidize
the price for those families and it's a big challenge.
We are not an NGO we are a business, we have 24 workers, and thank you for the support.
--Well that's an ambitious program and I'm glad to hear that you're doing that.
Thank you so much, Oshik, for visiting the Gardenerd Headquarters in Los Angeles.
All right gardenerds, if you have further questions, post them in the comments below
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Happy gardening.