Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Is their anyone out there that has a year round outdoor system in the New England area? I dont have my own setup yet but i know that i want to do it outside. I'm just worried by the climate changes in my region. I dont want to get caught in a money pit of an investment buying heaters and such. Is their a cheaper more sustainable way out there that i have not discovered yet?

do you have a basement?

yes i do have a basement . your setup looks great! thanks for sharing. As i stated above i want to do it outdoors. I would like to do a green house with some type of natural heat source(probably mulch piles). My basement feels to limited on space and i really want to GROW!

Welcome to the forum,

Greenhouse setup might have a shot if you get enough light and build in heat storage but don't try to grow Tilapia. Check out ZsaZsa's thread where he built a solar greenhouse. Odd's are you'll have to do some heating in the coldest part of Winter though.

Cheers

There was a thread on BYAP where someone did a great big compost heap to use for heating, it's been awhile but I can't remember the thread

My leanto greenhouse give about 3 months extra growing. I am border line zone 5/6. It will easily raise the temp 40 f on sunny days. It is connected to house with windows to balance temp swings. My FT is in the basement to keep water temps from fluctuating. I plan to add a little extra water heat this fall. Cold weather crops will grow when water temps are above 50 f but it is slow. When my water temps get above 60 f the plants take off. I just want a little heat for the fall and spring to give a 10 deg rise in water temp.

Same situation here. Only two that do slightly better are Kale and Chard.

Cheers

What do you do about the excess heat in the summer?

Hello, I am in New Hampshire and inside my greenhouse ( hoop style ) I have buit a rocket mass heater for the winter time...it should be able to keep the temps inside greenhouse around 65 / 70 ( I hope )
The greenhouse gets plenty of sun during the day even in winter as long as sun is out, but for New Hampshire with the record cold winter we just had I plan on adding some compost piles in the corners to generate even more heat...The rocket mass heater works well for now but I have yet to try it during the winter as we just built it... I vent my exhaust outside of greenhouse.

There is a 5x5 door on one end and and a 4x4 window on the other to get a cross breeze. I can also remover the bottom 2 ft tall panels and I have shade cloth. You can check out mine by clicking "deck system" in my sig.