Guys and Gals-

We just launched a Kickstarter campaign to make new non-waterbottle windowfarms.

This is the first evolution of the R&D-I-Y design that has evolved through our mass collaboration into a manufacturable version that we can make available to the rest of the world!

They will use a version of the T-valve approach with components from the pharmaceutical industry. We are replacing the water bottles with new cups that mimic the water bottles but are cheaper to produce with safe, recycled plastics. The reservoir is going to be bigger and easier to fill, clean, and adjust. It will mimic the water bottle reservoir in its ability to funnel organic nutrient sediment to the intake for recirculation. They will hang or stand, making positioning easier for folks who are allergic to drills!

I want to let you know that this is in no way a move away from the recycled material windowfarms. The DIY versions are my personal favorite, but they just are not a good fit for everyone.

This will help fund badly needed work for the community. We need to migrate to a new website because this one is broken, not easily searchable, always getting spammed, and it generally drives me crazy. We also need to make updates to all the instructions that fold in all the awesome improvements you guys have made, which is also a lot of work.

I would really appreciate your help promoting the new windowfarms to the newcomers who have been waiting to join our ranks. Please help me welcome them!

I hope you are all going to have a great Thanksgiving (you too International Windowfarmers!) and you are all a large part of what I have to give thanks for.

-Britta

Hello every one I am new to this site and I like to sahre give a nic

Share information:

Solar air pump works with bateries to!

I cant wait to start my own windor farm!

God bless and have fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZeVb7DzUOE

Hi all,

I just completed my first window farm and wanted to share my experience.  Just as I decided to get one of these together, I had an assignment to create a video about the environmental subject of my choice, and this seemed to fit perfectly. Here’s what I came up with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fif-hNj47M.  I used several images from this site, so if I used one of yours and you want it removed, then please let me know.

I was particularly impressed with Dave’s Manhattan Window Farm design (http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/01/07/my-manhattan-windowfarm/), and used it as a starting point.  In the interest of simplicity and energy conservation I decided not to use lights or a pump, at least to start.  I don’t live anywhere near a hydroponics supply store, and was unable to find nutrient solution, net cups, clay pellets, or rock wool.  Instead I used Vigoro all purpose soluble plant food diluted for indoor plants, cheap plastic plant containers that I already had and a mixture of vermiculite and pebbles.  I figured that the vermiculite would retain moisture better between manual waterings anyway.  I wanted as large a space for roots as possible, so I used 2L soda bottles, which I regularly use.  I could only find 2″ split ring hangers but they turned out to be just large enough to hold the neck of the bottles and keep them close (but not too close) to the shower curtain rod.

I bought some romaine, arugula, and red leaf lettuce from Lowe’s so I could include actual plants in the video, and for the instant gratification, but in the future I will be using seed, of which I have plenty, to start one with herbs and another one or two with things like beans and peppers.  I waited too long for the first watering and I lost a few leaves because of that and damage sustained during transfer, but otherwise they’re looking good ten days in.  Since, I have been watering with 2-4 cups of solution every 2-3 days.  The red leaf is growing really well, while the romaine seems to be struggling a bit.  The arugula is a little bigger, but has not changed much, although they have all grown.

Here are some pictures:

Day One:

Day Ten:

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this project.

04.21.2011 Edit to add:

I lost one (the smallest) of three of the romaine plants to what looks like root rot but the others seem to be doing well-

and unfortunately the arugula looks like it’s going to seed already

I made another video and basically I ran out of pipe and ladder and because of that I couldn’t pump any higher but I am curious. How high can you go? I went 13 ft but there was no problem whatsoever pumping that high! So, maybe, if you have a 2 story house or an available high place you could find out how high it is possible to go? So the contest rules are in the picture below and in a video
(You might get some extra hints and ideas if you watch the video)
Basically you use your aquarium air pump, and a T joint set at 2 ft below your liquid reservoir height.

Contest rules for unbelievably high airlift powered by puny aquarium air pump

So the rest of the post is from a couple of days ago and has a little different version of the video. (I am too Lazy to write a new post)

I made a new video about the pulser pump and Eileen suggested that a “pulser pump nano” (a smaller version) might be useful. The pulser pump is my little “invention” from over 20 years ago. Anyway, I no longer live near a river so I cannot do a nano. But because of my involvement in windowfarms, I can at least test how high a tiny pulser pump can pump. Today I used the T-joint method and an extendable ladder to go pretty high. With an aquarium air pump and 22 inches of submergence, I pumped to 13 ft high today! I bet it can go a lot higher but thats it for me.
Here is the video (which may be of some use to windowfarmers)

Just wanted to let everyone know that I found a simple outdoor timer with single outlet for $1 and some change . It only has 30 min intervals, but not bad for less than $2

I did a little video today about lowering the airspeed through to windowfarm to vary (and sometimes increase!) the rate of airlift.  Depending on your tubes the rate can be quite slow and still give you good pumping. Check it out because I think it can help people to understand a bit better and to get things right first time.
Anyway here are some pictures that I took out of the video.

2 outlet air flow regulator valve

This is a little aquarium valve and bottom pic shows the adjustment knobs

You can either use it to regulate air to 2 t joints or just leave one open to the windowfarm and have the other one just a bit open to let some of the air escape.

Below is a head for connecting a tube under the reservoir. You might need a bit of gauze or window bug screen in the bottom to stop crud getting into the tubes.

Head for watering plants. Snip off the top and use the "neck" to attach tube

And you also can use this thing for aquariums as a bottom reservoir.

Aquarium attachment for tubing

And finally I am going to show you a pic of the bubble in the tubing.

plug of water

If you reduce the airflow into the t-joint and into the tube, sometimes the water flow increases. This is because the type of flow changes from churn flow to plug flow.

Plug flow can be quite slow sometimes. As the plugs of water rise, it changes from many short ones to a few long ones.

Watch the video to get more information.

Thanks Brian

I made a few of these a couple of years ago for solar cooker projects. (See picture at the bottom)   If you make one, just note that there are many different clocks on the market and some are stronger than others. Many are very weak so be careful when you do your “clock conversion”.

Also note that some sort of electronic device with a stepper motor could probably do the same thing better. (But I have not a clue about electronics so someone else must do that project). And the stepper thing could have linear motion. It does not need to be rotational. A stepper device could also have slower drip at night when the plants are sleeping.

Back to the clock!

Basically you just replace the hour hand of the clock with a little wheel. You wind string around the wheel and attach the string to a little tube. The tube provides the drip for your window farm. During the day as the wheel turns the tube lowers and water drips out.  At the end of the day, you loop the string round the wheel twice and refill your upper reservoir.   So for sure, you have a bit of work to do to adapt this for windowfarms but it would be fun and you could use a clock or maybe an electrical timer  to provide the rotation.  Useful especially for people who do not like the noise from pumps?

Anyways, I don’t think any solar cook ever used my clock based tracker, (Which is a huge shame) but the window farm people seem a lot more willing to experiment!

Get to it!!!

Clock based dripper

Thanks,  Brian.

Hi everybody !

It took me a couple of weeks of thinking, and a whole weekend to work out everything, but there it is. My sailboat windowfarm is now working on a regulated dripping system since… 5 hours. This one is not plastic-free, but it is electricity-free and if everything works out as planned, the dripping flow will be entirely automated… in between the moments I choose to close it (since there is no timer either on this installation).

By the way, Brian, I tried twice to send you a comment on your last post (Easy way to attach a T-Joint…), because I had a few questions, but nothing would pass. I posted another comment to someone else and it passed. So I don’t know what I did wrong or if you blocked the receiving of comments by mistake. Anyway, thanks a lot for your explanations and drawings. It made things a lot easier.

I’m still looking for a mainly non plastic dripping system for my clay pot windowfarm, so I may come back to the emitter valve (if I can find one somewhere) and glass or metal containers, but this one is my practice, servicing my all plastic sailboat windowfarm.

Photo 1 : While looking for an emitter in my local hydroponic store, the salesman directed me right to this product (which is intended for animal water tanks). At 22,99$ (Canadian), I couldn’t resist long, as he didn’t have the emitter and didn’t seem to know exactly what I was talking about. It ressembles a toilet float valve, only much more compact. The brand name is Little Giant, item number TM825, by Miller Manufacturing co. Glencoe, MN.

Photo 2 : Here’s one of the plans provided with the thing. It’s easy enough to assemble. You fix the red floater to the black housing with a “cotter pin”, you tighten your brackets to the black housing with two short screws, and later, you use two long screws to thighen the whole thing to the side of your reservoir. You have a washer to put down into the mouth where a garden hose will be screwed up (standard 3/4″).  That’s about it for the stuff provided in the box.

Photos 3 and 4 : I still needed other components though. I spent another 10 box on the rest. As I wasn’t just about to use a 10 foot garden hose, I needed to mount one much shorter. So I bought an adaptator (on photo 3, it’s the grey plastic part just under the yellow hose) between the 6″ bit of yellow garden hose that I used and the float valve (in black), and then another adaptator (on photo 4, it’s the black part) between the upper reservoir (a cheap plastic container that I had to pierce a round hole into) and the garden hose. Finally, I placed two of these plumbing metal necks (I don’t know their name in English) over both junctions to insure watertitghness. By the way, the green electric wire is just there to keep the garden hose bent down, because I was tight on vertical space. I only had 12″ vertical clearance. Now that the hose adapted in it’s place, I won’t need the wire anymore. With that bent in the middle of the garden hose, I was afraid to block the water’s flow, but thankfully, it just slows it down.

Photo 5 : I used a flimsy plastic container made of half a kitty litter container. It doesn’t show on the photo, but I put a small piece of wood between the container’s exterior side and the float valve brackets so both long screws could set onto it. It makes everything more tighten at the same time. The container is only 4 1/2″ deep. I think it’s just the minimum to make the float work properly (if you don’t need a fast refill).

Photo 6 : Here’s a view of the whole installation. the principles are quite simple. You have two reservoirs, one on top of the other. The upper reservoir will empty out gradually. The bottom reservoir acts like a buffer, because the float valve regulates the intake of water and keeps this reservoir always at the exact same level. This way, the water pressure in the bottom reservoir is alway the same, so you can adjust your dripping valve once and the water flow will remain constant until your upper reservoir is empty. In that event, the float valve reservoir would then start to empty itself and from that point, your water flow would not be even anymore, slowing gradually. One end of my drop-by-drop tubing is maintained at the bottom of the reservoir with a rock, just like in the previous system. The tubing runs over the edge of the tank, so I didn’t have to pierce any hole to drive the tubing through the container’s side. It lowers the risks of leaking, which is to greatly please me, considering the position of all this water just above my dictionnaries LOL ! The white plastic bottle neck is simply a piece I cut out and squeezed under the black float valve to stabilize it. It doesn’t get in the way of the red floater (which you cannot see on this photo, because at that moment, it was in its upper position, inside the black housing, shutting the flow of water).

There’s at least one drawback on this installation : it won’t be that easy to dismount it to clean up every component. I could not find the proper parts that would have allowed me to separate the two tanks in a jiffy. I tried with metal garden hose connectors, but it kept leaking, so I brought everything back to the hardware store to get a refund.  Next time, maybe ?

Photo 7 – 8 – 9 :  To make the installation a little tidier, I used an old wooden crate to put the float valve reservoir in it. It also acts às a support for the upper reservoir. It’s too long for nothing (about a third too long), but it’s 12″ wide, just the exact depth of my shelf. My instatallation is barely under 12″ high, so it almost scratches the upper shelf. But I can draw the whole installation a little outward (so it sticks out about an inch) and it becomes very easy to refill the upper reservoir (photos 8 and 9).

Photo 10 : A view of the whole thing. You’ll notice that my highest bottle is at least a foot lower than the shelf where the float valve reservoir is sitting. I think it’s the reason why I can get away with the water pressure given by less than 2 ” of water depth in that reservoir. Otherwise, the resistance in my tubing would be too high to let the water flow freely, possibly. It would be different if my reservoirs would be directly over the windowfarm, but the ceiling clearance is not sufficient to allow me such an installation.

Just before publishing this article, I noticed that the drip rate is at roughly one drop every 4,5 seconds. Five hours ago, I settled it at one drop every 2,5 seconds, so it slowed down very gradually. But it’s my drop-to-drop ajustment valve that is the culprit, I’m sure of it (it’ this small white thing on the tubing, with a red adjustment wheel on photo 10). The water level in the float-valve reservoir didn’t move a millimeter. I’ll give you an update on that.

Thanks for your suggestions and comments, everybody. I hastily made my reservoirs darker, but will have to address the issue more thoroughly in a near future. I used thick cardboard to make a niche for my upper reservoir and poster cardboard to cap the bottom one. Look at the photos.  Wouldn’t it be wise to cover the tubing as well, inside a sleeve of black fabric, for instance ?

I’m still looking into a sustainable pumpless system. I figure that I can live with the chore of climbing up once every three days to refill my upper reservoir. But I’d like to refine the design. And I thought about capillarity, this capacity of a spongy material to sip water up to a higher level. Still juggling with the idea. I have the habit to leave my plants at school with a very simple but very effective capillarity system to water them during Christmas vacations. By the way, I enrolled my younger daughter in this thinking process.

Meanwhile, I continued my experiments with the slow drip, utilizing the 600mL container, since I like the idea of suspending it directly above the plants. I doubled a simple string of unknown (synthetic) material, made a knot to tie its two ends together and squeezed the fold up into the silicone tubing. To my surprise, this slowed the flow  very significantly. (In my first attempt, using the enteral tubing with the slow drip system built in, the bottle was empty after 3 hours.) This last system lasted 84 hours (3 days and a half) during which it needed no intervention from my part.

But I think I might have been too successful in slowing the whole thing. I’m afraid the plants wouldn’t receive enough water.  So, I thought of coupling two 600mL bottles side by side, and join the two strings together to double the volume of water, which I’ll try out no later than tonight.

Which brings me to my question : does any of you out there can tell me approximately how much water you need to put through your system over a period of 24 hours to sustain your plants’ needs ? What would be your estimate ? And did I understand correctly when I read that people put their air pump on a timer to make it work only 15 minutes at a time ?

Last thing : Somebody gave me 2 swivel curtain rods, a few years ago, which I kept intending to use them for another project. I stumbled on them by chance while looking for something else. And I think they are just perfect for what I have in mind. I want to be able to get the whole window farm to get out of the way when I want to access my window. These rods move just like window shutters and their tubing is square, so we think that they would be strong enough to sustain the weight. I’m posting a photo and will certainly try them. Only need to figure out a way to stabilize the different columns of bottles at the bottom, possibly by tying them to a wooden rod suspended underneath the last row of bottles.

If this is in the wrong space, let me know, and I’ll publish further steps of construction somewhere else.

I had a productive weekend, and things worked the way they should have.  I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but there you go.  That’s doing things for the first time for you.  You learn all sorts of stuff about unrealistic expectations. Read the rest of this entry →