by ron
Pumpless Hydroponics With Moving Water
8:13 pm in energy consumption, environmental impact, Help the project by testing this, Seeking Advice by ron
Has anyone seen any plans for a system that does not require a pump. I am aware of the simple 1 bottle systems that use a wick to draw the water, but I am hoping for something that involves moving water.
I am thinking of a large reservoir that will be manually pumped from bottom reservoir to top and slowly release through out the day and then manually pumped to the top again.
After learning about the Archimedes Water Clock, I believe this is easily possible.
If you have seen anything like this, or want to collaborate on some ideas please discuss below. I live in NYC.
Hey Ron. I know there are other people on this site working on mechanically powered windowfarms. Someone was using a chemical method too. Unfortunately this beta site sucks and until we migrate it is impossible to search posts (ugh). Will you help us out by doing a little creative searching thru the site to find those other people and their posts? Try poking thru the tag cloud. Look thru the existing groups too. And browse back a little thru the activity tab. Once you find some of them will you create a new group and message them to ask them to join it and then post the link to that group here in the comments?
Ron, I don’t know why a simple gravity system wouldn’t work? Just build the 2.0 SAM (te three bottle verticle plan) and add a 4th bottle at the top (secure it well) as your drip bottle… then just let it drip throught the day and collect into the reservoir at the bottom… you might have to experiment with the size of the drip hole in the drip bottle on the top so it doesn’t all drip out too fast – I might try this system too !
The problem with simple gravity feed is that it slows down as the water level in the supply container gets lower. Below are a few ways of keeping that speed constant.
Several years ago, I did something called a dripper tracker (to move reflectors for solar cookers. There are several versions and one might work for you.
One is called the clock based dripper tracker. It would probably be the most precise one. At its simplest, you just wind string round a little wheel attached instead of the hand to the hour drive ring of a clock. Each hour of clock movement moves the string a bit lower. Bottom of string is attached to flexible tubing that lets the water drip out. So as the hours pass, the end of the tube lowers and the water drips out.
You just rewind the string after the end of the day. (Or 2 days or 3 days depending). This whole thing could also be done electronically with stepper motors. Apparently those who know say it is very easy (and cheap) to do with stepper motors. But nobody has ever offered to show me how!
I have used both types of dripper trackers to turn solar cooking experiments in the past.
Wow Brian, that is really good info! I’ll have to lok into it more. Thanks!
You should checkout the blumat concept, I suppsoe its not exactly what you’re looking for but with mediums like coco coir it might prove useful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWPLr0Selh8
@atos does that pump automatically? Or, is it just a regulator that is attached to a sensor?
@James Nutter You would have to place the reservoir above the pots, all the sensor does is allowing the water to flow when it gets dry.
I’d like add one aspect to the whole pump/pumpless conversation. Any type of pump has one important advantage over the reservoir type systems. You need less water in the system, so there is smaller potential for water damage. Only 10 liters (2,5 gallons) of water is enough to cause some serious damage if you are unlucky. With current energy prices the 5W pump system is very cheap to run and causes very little CO2, at least if you compare it to the water damage repair costs and CO2 the repairs would cause.
By comparison, my computer uses 59W at the moment of writing this, so one hour of working on the computer equals 12 hours of pumping action. 5W (common energy consumption figure for a water pump) is also less than most of the “energy saving” light bulbs use. With timer you don’t even need to run the pump 24/7, which cuts the energy consumption even more.
My insurance would not cover this type of water damage. And water damage is one expensive damage to have. I wouldn’t recommend large reservoirs indoors to anyone (with or with out a pump), even though the pump has some minor environmental impact.
Hi Ron. I’m an editor with http://www.East20sEats.com, a hyperlocal website covering food, eating and restaurants in Manhattan’s East 20s. Any chance you live in our coverage area? Would love to talk to you more about your Window Farm. Thanks.
Katina Paron
katina.paron@baruch.cuny.edu
http://www.East20sEats.com
You will need a rather large reservoir. As mentioned, getting the drip rate right and constant are some of the issues. One thing that would minimise this is using a reservoir that is wide and flat rather than tall.
I found an underbed storage container in a department store today which would be the perfect praportions for $16. However it holds 36L which is larger than necessary and would be heavy, I’m sure similar smaller containers can be found.
Louise from Quebec has also used a system with two top reservoirs. One feeds into the other through a valve which opens when the water level drops. This keeps the water level more constant and therefore the drip rate more constant.
@louisefromquebec
Edit: If you are having trouble finding the post i was talking about, with the two reservoirs and a float valve, Just click the “reservoirs” Tag in the tag cloud to the right. it is the second post ATM