Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

1

If anyone has access to fibre optics you could have collectors to project real light onto growbeds which are hidden from the sun. OR You could use growlights which require power and are a bit suspicious at the best of times...

Vertical farming is an incredible solution, but we need a cheap and reliable and effective method to supply light to the plants...

Haha "Fore!" "Oh Sh*t!" *crash*

I like the first one, at least they're taking sun direction into account, unlike a lot of the designs I've seen so far.

parabolic collectors that funnel into fiber optic lines already exist.

$ ?

Last time I looked the fiber optics would be way too expensive for a light monitor, if you want to send more than a tiny pinpoint of light.

Another thread on vertical farms:
viewtopic.php?p=110019#p110019

Skylights and solar domes frequently use reflective tubes to transfer the sunlight to the rooms in our homes. Perhaps judicious use of reflective tubed could be used to illuminate GBs which are shaded for most of the day.

Just a thought,
Tony

Found some info about "liquid" light guides, instead of fiber optics. Maybe a water line could work for this, if the interior of the tube were smooth enough?

Vertical farms could be infinite money sinks if technology wins over economic sustainability. I could price out a building that costs 1/2 billion $ if you want me to, and it wouldn't make any economic sense.


This is interesting, flat plate concentrator using water as a medium:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6619282.html

Dave ,, agreed ,, 99% of these lean green machines are bull. Build a 2 million dollar green loving grow-house to save 10 dollars a year in electricity. NOW please do not mention the "green" cost of the cement ......, raising the cement to that heightr ,, etc etc.
I laugh at most of this green crud ,, read about one of the first "green " cars ,, zero pollution,,,ROFLMAO ,, it plugged into a standard electrical outlet ,, burning coal???
But the single biggest NON green factor was the battery ,, manufacture of it and disposal of same
People love to dream ,, and that's a great thing ,, but reality must come into the equation..

Wouldn't sustainable principles dictate that these things wouldn't be new buildings at all but retrofits of existing unused or underutilized buildings, like maybe warehouses? The "parasite" things on the sides of existing buildings is a pretty cool concept.

http://web-japan.org/trends/lifestyle/lif050317.html

seen the underground farms in Japan?
Talking about looking suspicious!

I remember a bloke who got caught growing out at the ridge.
Neighbours were curious why he was talking dirt into his mine?

you bring up a valid point chappo, about green not being green, but greener is still greener.

Last time i looked coal power stations run at a higher efficiency than 35% which is about the best you're going to get from an internal combustion engine. Electric motors are available at 98% efficiency. Plus some of the electricity we get is from hydro.

Batteries can and will be recycled when exhausted. Yes i know there is energy involved in the manufacture and recycling of batteries, but there is also quite a bit of energy that is not counted involved in the drilling extraction processing and transport of oil.

So using a more effient coal power station, green hydro power, and efficient motors makes an electric car MORE green than an conventional car.

and more importantly able to be fueled by a variety of sources (coal, gas, hydro, wind, solar, nuclear)

Agreed , greener is better. There has just been so many bad ideas around the world on going green,that I've become somewhat jaded on the subject.

There's a BIG push on in the Aus Government to bring in a newish German technology that can be retro-fitted to coal burning stations and reduces emissions by some 90%. I'm all for that.

I'm no expert on the subject but I'm pretty sure if you stuck some wind turbines on top of a huge building you would get boatloads of power from em with the winds up there and all. could go a ways in providing power for the indoor farms/buildings. Gah sci-fi could be now if we wanted it to be(and had $$ growing on trees xD )

P.s. those buildings look so cool ^_^

ROFL!!!!

yeh, like CO2 sequestration......................'cause it doen't take much energy to liquify and transport CO2...........

anyway, we're off topic.

back to the topic at hand.

The future IS here now, its just not widely distributed!