Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I want to setup a what I feel is a fairly large aquaponics greenhouse in the near future.

I would like to set it up to use nothing but solar, wind, and possibly water power to create the electricity it uses.

I'm hoping to have between 2,000 and 2,500 square feet in my greenhouse. It will be just a bunch of small modules of different plants and fish connected together to create a very large system.

I would like to ask if anyone is using any sort of alternative energy to create the electricity in their setups and about how much electricity is being used by your system and how large of a system it is.

I would like to get a good picture that I can scale up to my greenhouse of how much electricity I will need.

Matt, forgive my short post, but i'm trying to catchup on just uner 500 posts, and its only been a couple of days

If you designed your green house so that it makes use of natural ventilation for the summer then i think you could cut down on your electricity requirement heaps.

I'd guess that for that size green house the ventilation fans wouold use more power than the pumps

converting feet to metres 10'sq= 1sq mtr

Yahoo! we're up to three folks in Pennsylvania (that I know of). Welcome aboard Matthew! You're about 1.5 hours north of me. David D is about 2 hours west of me. Hmmm...plot, plot, plan, plan....

Steve is right to approach this with using natural ventilation. The best way to pull this off using alternative power would be to reduce your needs for power from all sources. Berm your greenhouse into the south face of a nice slope. See if you can take advantage of summer breezes from the west. Plant evergreens to the north. Consider planting deciduous trees to the south or using other seasonal shade.

For fish selection, if you go with Tilapia, your pasive solar design needs to be very good if you don't want to supplementally heat the water in the winter. They need 80 degrees F minimum to be happy. If you went with a cold water fish, you don't have to worry about heating water. Ornamental Goldfish or Koi for the pond trade might be nice. John GotFish is trying Yellow Perch, but is a bit challenged by it. The Speraneo (sp?) set up is described here: http://www.townsqr.com/snsaqua/page2.htm They do tilapia with minimal power use, but they are in Missouri.

My little indoor system with 100gal fishtank and a target of 35 pounds of fish per year will run 3 19watt pumps in turn. No more than 2 are on at once, and only for a few moments. I have 2 300watt heaters. I'm not sure how frequently they come on--it depends on the air temperature, of course. I could reduce the amount of time they are on by partially covering the tank, or insulating it.

Hello Mathew, I have passive ventation which consists of 12 vents in the South facing kneewall 24"X14". I have a tower above the back wall of my greenhouse reaching 18' above ground and 4' above greenhouse with vents on all sides. This forms a chimney affect and draws air thru the greenhouse. Last summer was hot here, quite a few days above 90F and this system without any power venting or shade cloth ran no more that 6 degrees above outside (usually less). I was on a 3 month trip and left all vents wide open. I monitor inside/outside temp and humidity and wind speed and direction every 15 minutes. This data is available all the time on the web. So, when I was in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, I could still monitor my system. I plan to run on solar electric panels some day and I will run everything from deep cycle golf cart batteries now so I can monitor my power usage and know how many panels it will take. I still find the price too high for panels now ($5US/watt for just the panels). My system startup will be in spring 2007. So last summer I had an empty 3000 gallon rectangular concrete tank. Next summer I will have 3000 gallons of water to even out day/nite temps besides the concrete mass. I am an electrical engineer whos career has been embedded controllers (like vehicle powertrain controllers, etc). I plan to minimize my energy use by having cool water fish(perch, blue gill, and channel catfish and raise cold tolerant plans in the winter. No artificial heat for water or air with one exception. I moved our hot tub from our deck to the greenhouse (hated to give up the square feet). The electric for the hot tub has always been an extravigence, at least now it will be less because the hot tub is running in a much higher ambient temp. and the greenhouse will gain the hot tub waste heat. The other ploy for better temps in greenhouse is that north and west walls are shared with my shop building so they never see outdoor temps. Construction was expensive with all pressure treated wood and six inch walls with lots of insulation on all sides and buried 2" foam to 4' deep. Inside walls are 3/4 foam with foil both sides. The foil reflects 98% of infrared range. I used all the engineering I know to make it energy efficient. Next I use an embedded controller to allow monitoring & control remotely from the internet. All my vents, pumps fans, etc will be computer controlled.

I am glad to discuss with others interested in some of these approaches.

MM, welcome to the forum, Mike Ferrini (MF) runs his on solar power, here is his thread for more info:

*MF's thread*

Mike should be able to add more for you also

thats for that doug.

My greenhouse design is gonna be a dome. I think they are called geodesic domes. I'm not exactly sure how ventilation works in them.

Thanks for the suggestions, appreciate it greatly. I've gotten a few more ideas that I might be able to add to my design.

Also thanks for the 2 links. I hadn't even seen that SS Aquafarm one before.

geodesics are COOL. (as in fun )

speaking of running on solar power. anyone seen these little solar panel chargers that crazy clarks has out...16.95 (and yes you pay for what you get...but it might just save your system without grid power) used to trickle charge a battery or air pump battery or some such.

Crazy Clarks Catalogue: see page 11

look at the bottom right of page 11.

Cheers,

Duncan.

[font=Times New Roman] [/font] Mathew, I am interested in what material you will use for geodesic dome. Is it covered with a film covering or polycarbonate panels? From scratch or kit? I imagine venting is very important in California. Have you thought of a method yet? What is the framing material?

Have you heard of the Eden project in England? It is a hugh complex of geodesic domes. They have created many of the worlds biospheres in them. If I get to England, you can bet I will get over to see Eden!
Take a look:!:
Eden Project

Duncan, read somewhere when doing research on deep cycle batteries, they need a different voltage to charge than normal car batteries and this may not be useful for DCBs - not sure tho, someone else maybe more knowledgable on this

I'm still undecided on if I will try and do it myself or buy a kit.

I found one site that has something that I sort of pictured. http://www.geodesic-greenhouse-kits.com/index.php

They have a size that fits in my desired amount of total area.

I had not heard of the eden project before. I'm gonna bookmark that one and check it out later.

Avoid them like the plague Donarto.... amorphous solar panels were never designed to sit in the sun 8/7.

As for deep cycle batteries... there are many stages of charging batteries.... bulk 14.4-15 V, PWM (Pulse width modulated) and float. A proper charge controller will do all this for you...

Sorry Tim but that statement is not correct. As a long time user of both amorphous & crystaline solar panels and in a place where direct sun can be over 50C (40C+ in shade) the amorphous solar panels work best. BTW there is no sun 24/7 either Not being picky but dislike misconceptions particularly regarding solar panels.
Don for a small setup use a gel battery of about 200amp/hr and a solar regulator and depending on draw 2-4 64w panels and you should be ok. if wind is in good supply look at wind generators. Our place has a hybrid solar/wind system (12vdc) and copes well enough though we will be enlarging the system once we sell up in town and live there permanantly
Pete