The Great Energy Challenge

Today 9 households around the world start their energy diet.

Mine is not one of the 9 being featured in National Geographics 360º Energy Diet, but Ive signed up.

Here are the points one can earn in each of six categories (Goods, Food, Transport, Home, Water, and Waste). Ive colored the ones Im already doing green, the ones Im not yet doing red.

1) GOODS

15 points each

• Tally your water, electric, & gas use and calculate how you could cut CO2
  
• Switch to organic for three produce items you regularly buy
  
• Switch to natural/eco-friendly cleaning methods for three tasks
  
• Switch from an imported non-produce item to a version produced locally

10 points each

• Swap disposables that you regularly buy for reusables (e.g., cleaning wipes)
  
• Repair or extend use of clothing items rather than buying new ones
  
• Use old printer paper/magazines/retail shopping bags, etc. for wrapping paper
  
• Rent or borrow an item that you rarely use, such as a drill or steam cleaner

2) FOOD 15 points each

• Eat a vegetarian diet one day a week
  
• Eat at home or brown-bag it at least once per week
  
• Limit daily intake of beef to 8 ounces per person
  
• Only consume seafood that has been sustainably raised and fished

10 points each

• Start a food-based garden (hurray for aquaponics)
  
• Go vegan or raw one day per week
  
• Buy grass-fed beef instead of conventional
  
• Give up one processed food that you normally eat

3) TRANSPORT 15 points each

• Drive no faster than the speed limit, and avoid rapid acceleration/braking
  
• Remove extra weight from your car and inflate tires to the proper pressure
  
• Use public transportation instead of your car at least once a week
  
• Reduce planned air travel by one trip

10 points each

• Buy carbon offsets for your travel
  
• Carpool or find a ride-sharing program
  
• Switch to a more fuel-efficient car

4) HOME 15 points each

• Turn heat/AC off when gone & change the thermostat by 3 ºF to reduce fuel use
  
• Set frig to 37 ºF, freezer to 0 ºF, water heater to 120 ºF and washer to cold
  
• Replace at least one third of your light bulbs with CFLs or LEDs
  
• Disconnect TV, stereo, and computers and other electric devices when not in use

10 points each

• If you have a second old refrigerator in your house, get rid of it
  
• If your refrigerator is > 10 years old, get a new one with a top-mounted freezer
  
• Insulate your water heater
  
• Replace appliances with EnergyStar appliances
  
• Hang clothes up to dry instead of using the dryer
  
• Seal all windows and doors in your home with caulk or weather-stripping

5) WATER 15 points each

• Give up bottled water for filtered tap water
  
• Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth or scrubbing dishes
  
• Shortening your shower by one minute or more. If you bathe, switch to showers
  
• Replace shower head or tap with a low-flow model

10 points each

• Use xeriscaping for your yard and avoid thirsty plant types
  
• Install a rain barrel to collect water for garden, lawn and plants

6) WASTE 15 points each

• Recycle all glass, aluminum, plastic, paper, batteries, and CF lightbulbs
  
• Eliminate junk mail by taking yourself off their mailing lists
  
• Change to paperless billing for bank account, credit card and bills
  
• Eliminate the use of plastic and paper bags, both when shopping and at home

10 points each

• Begin composting at home
  
• Using biodegradable bags for walking the dog if the family has one
  
• Recycle old athletic shoes and clothes
  
• Recycle or donate old computers, cell phones and other electronics
  

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Food and Energy in the Cold Northeast

The Cold Northeast Regions of China and the United States
Point A: Shenyang, Jilin, China
Point B: Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States

I found a delightful report the United Nations put together in 1994 on how to produce crops and energy in the cold northeast (42 degrees north of the equator). Its got a wealth of information on topics from methane production to solar homes and greenhouses, and integrated plant/animal ecosystems.

Its also chock full of charts and graphs and experimental results.

The full title is "Integrated energy systems in China - The cold Northeastern region experience."

Happily, the cold northeastern region of China is eerily similar to the cold northeastern region of the United States - same latitude, near an ocean, and populated by millions of folks who like to eat and stay warm.

I particularly liked the documented results from the experiments comparing Subterranean heating/Cooling Systems or Underground Heat Exchange Solar Greenhouses (UHESG) to Conventional Solar Greenhouses (CSG). The 1980s-era researchers document greater than 50% improvement in yields (in both weight and money value) for UHESG over CSG.

The English in the report is a bit awkward and laden with engineer-ese, but there are plenty of great ideas for those of us who have uncomfortably cold winters.

[Post Script - Latitude isnt the only story. The hardiness zone in Shenyang is between 4 and 5, while the hardiness zone of latitudinal twin Plymouth is an ocean-warmed 6. Due to the Gulf Stream, London enjoys a hardiness zone of 9, though it is almost 10 degrees further north than either Shenyang or Plymouth. Id have to travel south to Florida to get to a hardiness zone of 9!]

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Different types of Aquaponics

Some of the descriptions and images come from The Aquaponic Store

NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) - A method of growing plants in which a thin and even film of  aerated nutrient solution flows down a channel into which the roots of the crop are suspended. It is very important to filter the water well before sending it to an NFT trough since fish waste in the trough and on the plant roots will negatively impact the plants growth.  NFT aquaponics requires separate solids and bio-filtration.  While the reduced amount of water needed to fill the system may seem like a benefit, it can mean greater temperature and water quality fluctuations in a short period of time.

DWC (Deep Water Culture) - DWC is often referred to as Raft where the plants grow suspended over a tank of water in which nutrient rich water flows with supplemental aeration.  In most situations filtration needs to occur before fish water is sent to the raft area of the system.

CHIFT PIST (Constant Height In Fish Tank Pump In Sump Tank) -  Maintaining a constant volume/height in the fish tank with a sump tank at the lowest point and a fish tank at a higher point.  The pump lifts water from the sump tank to the fish tank and water flows from the fish tank to the grow beds which drain back to the sump tank.

CHOP (Constant Height One Pump) - Basically the same thing as CHIFT PIST.  With CHIFT PIST there has not normally been a distinction between the variation where the fish tank drains back to the sump directly and the pump pumps to the grow beds and they might drain to the sump or the fish tank.  With CHOP it was normally assumed that the fish tank got the water from the pump and drained to grow beds which drained to the sump.
CHOP2 - The variation of CHIFT PIST where both the fish tank and grow beds drained to the sump and the sump pumped to both the growbeds and fish tank
Flood and Drain- The plant growing space is allowed to flood and then drain either by the use of a pump on a timer to fill the bed and then allow it to drain while the pump is off or by the use of a siphon or other intermittent outflow device where the bed is constantly filling and then the siphon will drain the bed quickly.
Advantages: providing ample oxygen to plant roots and bio filter bacteria without the need of extra aeration.  Many plants like some dry time especially if the water is not super aerated.
Disadvantages: Water level needs to fluctuate in the system to provide the water for flood and drain.  Flood and drain offers more media to air than media to water interface which can have an exaggerated heat exchange effect on water temperatures.

Ebb and Flow - The same as Flood and Drain except you are usually pumping up through the bottom of the grow bed and then when the pump turns off, you are draining back down through the pump.

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AN ADDITION TO THE AMONIA NOTE

I went through my compiled data for the water readings just after I put that last blog out and realised that Garth had given it a dressing of lime. So there are now two factors that could be responsible for the amonia starting to kick on again. By the way it is still moving the nitrites so the plants are eating again, thats nice to know hey...

Right! Where were we.....

Yes of course Aquaponics. Aquaponics created by Rob Maslin is the embodiment of a sustainable system.  Well thats what the page says(Editor)

A couple of interesting Videos on Aquaponics at Home

Now, Heres a bit of High Tech

Welcome to New Aquaponics! We have just added a social bookmarking feature that

And just for a LAFF  Its called Utopia Aquaponics.

WARNING WARNING From Australia, Oh yes Via Strain Guide

Just last week in the lowlands of Scotland, within the town of Moffat an old fire station has been converted into an aquaponics farm.

 Do you live near AUSTIN?

Torrent downloads for Aquaponics

Heres a School Project for you.

Here is a Very, Very Special Video on Uganda

And on that note I think Ill close the notebook again...
Soon
O Z Z I E

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Energy Audit

Im writing this to get my head around what Ive just found out.  I hope it provides you with food for thought.

Ive noticed our electric bill climb as I continue to add to my aquaponic systems, so using a Watt meter I did an energy audit .  
The first thing to surprise me is the cost of moving air.   Im using a whole house fan and a 20" box fan.  Both use more than I expected.  The whole house fan consumes 530W, and the box fan 90W. 

My submersible pumps are not too bad for submersibles, but one is not as large as I would like.
The Alpine Hurricane 2400 GPH is drawing 129W.  It is delivering 1750 GPH at 4 foot head.
The undersized No Name pump I am using in the outside IBC system is drawing 20W and delivers 268 GPH at 4 foot head.


Expanding the grow beds in this IBC system is going to require a larger pump, so I just purchased an AZFlo 2400/4000 External Pump for 299.00.  It will deliver 1900 GPH using 105W at 4 foot head..  This is 20W less than the Alpine Hurricane delivering 1700 GPH.  If I were to replace that submersible with this external pump I would break even in 5.7 years.

Now heres something I find interesting.  Pump power usage is non-linear. These tables show as head increases GPH decreases as would be expected, but the Watts seem to peak around the midpoint of maximum head. 

I have also have a Sequence 3600 700 series pump on my pond.  139W delivers 2820 GPH at a 4 foot head.  As you can see the external pumps are a lot more economical.

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Monday 13th December 2010

Ive been flicking through the Archives this morning and I am pretty sure that this Blog has covered Aquaponics from every direction possible. However not to the depth that we can go. The things Ill be looking at throughout 2011 will be to try to cover the more technical aspects of the biological processes and of course searching for breakthroughs or better understandings of what is happening or can happen within certain systems.

In other words The Search Goes On Into 2011 and beyond. So stick with us as we attempt to continue to uncover Whats New and Whats Different through the upcoming twelve months and of course we will continue to cover the very basics of DIY for what I believe will be a huge rush of newcomers into this wonderful hobby.

OK Bridle is back on............

First up...Murray, But Ill let him do the talking because he is talking with a Milne....???

Next I can hit two birds with the one shot - The Daily A/P and Sylvia

Erin & Jakes Adventure “Life is either a great adventure or nothing.” – Hellen Keller

 Asparagus Update - 4th Dec 2010 Affnans Aquaponics  Amateur Urban Aquaponics, if I can do it, you can do it too..:)

The leafy greens, basil, cherry tomatoes, green onions, Swiss chard and sweet yellow peppers look unbelievably healthy and robust. And how they’re planted is equally unbelievable. These veggies are growing in bins above

One Size Does Not Fit All: comparing sizes and techniques is Aquaponics Learn the economics of growing your food, how much does it COST per sqaure foot, and HOW much cans you SAVE, or it going Commercial, HOW much can you earn......

Aquaponics Company Celebrates Achievements, Growth in 2010. 2010 has been a year of achievements, milestones and growth for Nelson and Pade, Inc, a Wisconsin-based company specializing in aquaponics.

In my never-ending quest to build the ultimate incubator for Tilapia eggs, I have built at least 5 prototypes, none of which worked exactly the way I planned. Summarised below are some (You will need to click through for this one)

Edmund Morris had dreamed for many years of moving to the country, reading all he could about farming and taking a keen interest in anything agricultural. His city life had...

Here is an excellent article:When checking over my “Indorm” aquaponic system, I noticed small colonies of Brown Algae forming on some of the rock sculptures in the fish tank. 

3x5 Aquaponics Saturday, December 4, 2010 Seedlings Growing... 

How it all Started 12, Fish Feeder 2 - I finally went ahead and got some new Automatic Fish feeders. We actually tried a fish pond feeder but it was designed to fling the feed out into the middle of a pond and really.....

Arlington residents get grass roots gardening tips

Written by Natalia Contreras, The Shorthorn senior staff
Sunday, 05 December 2010 07:07 PM
Chowgene Koay wants to teach people how to grow their own food by recreating a system that’s commonly found in nature. Conceptual 3D Rendering of Aquaponics - Abhar Amir Alias. The following picture are interesting 3D rendering by Abhar Amir Alias. The siphon below is an improvement in my initial design. He has included a strainer guard that will hold the strainer in place instead of having to use Silastic or other adhesive  That should do for today Take Care OZZIE

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Energy

I began this aquaponics project [Click Here]  with a goal to create an energy efficient system and explore the viability of a commercial system.

On March 8th I added a water heater and have maintained the temperature between 72F - 80F.  My utility bill begins and ends on the 20th of each month, so the heater was added midway through the cycle. 

The tanks are well insulated R11 and the grow room is insulated at R19.  The heater was only required several hours a day.  The weather has been slightly warmer than normal, but many days were near freezing and the glazing is not finished so I have a fair amount of infiltration.

All of these variables detract from an accurate assessment, but it is my conclusion that the cost of maintaining the heat for tropical fish and an ideal grow bed temperature is adding about 120 KWH/month or $34/month during the winter.

Recently my efforts have been to cool rather than heat.  Im using an evaporative cooling system which consumes about 180KWH/month at a cost of about $50/month. 

My plants were lanky and pale, so on March 18 I added 270W of supplemental lighting, and they have improved.   I have also added one more light for the duck weed bringing the total to about 300W.

I have been running the lights for 18 hours a day which is consuming about 5.4KW/day.  This additional usage pushed me into the next tier and adds an extra 4 cents per Kilo-Watt, but Ill use my average cost of $0.28/KWH for these calculations.  Id estimate the supplemental lighting adds about 160KWH/month or $45.00/month.  I will reduce this or discontinue supplemental lighting when the long Summer days arrive.

In order to reduce costs  Ill look into solar or propane heating, and I may be able to reduce the hours I supplement light or find a better glazing design.   Currently I have 40 sq ft of South facing vertical glazing in front of 25 sq ft of grow bed.   Direct sunlight is cut short by the winter season as well as the solid insulated walls and ceiling.  

In addition to lighting and temperature control the pump also consumes about 36KWH/month or about $10/month and tank lights at about 16KWH/month or $4.50

Adding this all up I get
$40.00 - Temperature Control
$45.00 - Lights
$10.00 - Pump
$ 4.50  - Tank Lights
$99.50 - Total utility per month.  

I feel the options are:

1. Find a way to direct more light onto the grow bed
2. Build additional grow beds outdoors for use only in the Summer
3. Experiment with less supplemental lighting to find the minimum amount required.
4. Change my crop seasonally and switch to cold water fish.

I am currently running the indoor grow room as well as a pond and have begun construction of an outdoor cold water aquaponic system using IBCs.  I should be able to compare the costs and production in a few months, but it seems obvious to me that the only way to make aquaponics cost effective is to raise fish that are adapted to your climate and plant seasonal crops.

Even without the additional cost of supplemental lighting my costs would still be about $50.00/month.  That is probably a break even point considering the cost of food and other items such as test kits.

I have enjoyed doing this and will continue to look at it as a $1200/year hobby with food as a benefit.

Additional advancement may come from recent technology as found in these links

Solar Grow Tube 

Inteligentry

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Ten Calories Of Energy To Produce One Calorie Of Food

I just read the article  "The Permaculture Solution – an Interview with Warren Brush". It said "Estimates are that the modern agriculture system uses ten calories of energy to produce one calorie of food."

Fearing that I too may be growing negative net energy food. I immediately looked at the energy costs involved with my soil-less gardens. My hydroponic pump uses 160 watts-hours per day or 137.6 KCal or about 576 KJ/day.   Chris Carr was kind enough to remind me that nutritional calories (KCal) are equal to 1000 chemistry calories (cal).    A chemist would probably use Joules and Kilo-Joules (KJ) rather than KCal.   But the we think of food in terms of KCalories rather than Joules, so Ill keep it in KCal also known as large calories as much as I can.  There were other errors in my first draft,  so heres the rewrite.  Many of my calculations will be done using the Energy and Work Unit Conversion at unit-conversion.info/energy.html. 

I did some research and found a daily harvest of 8lbs of lettuce and 100lbs of tomatoes to be respectable averages for a 100sf garden. So I will be using those figures throughout.
Just for grins lets say you irrigate 100 square feet of garden with 10 gallons per day, and you are pumping water from lets say 100 feet below the surface. 

To calculate the power used to pump 10 gallons per minute 100

P_whp = q h sg / 3960

where

P_whp = water horsepower (hp)
q = flow (gal/min)    = (10)
h = head (ft)              = (100)
sg = specific gravity = (1)

P_whp = 10x100/3960 = .2525whp = 0.04497210699688 KCal/sec
This could also be expressed as 188.2892175745  J/sec which is the definition of a Watt.

If you are following along and checking my math you can use the Power Unit Conversion to find the Power.
Power and Energy are different.  Energy is what is delivered and Power is the rate at which it is delivered.
In the above example we deliver 188 Watts for 10 minutes or 31.38 Watt-Hours



We pump for 10 minute so
0.04497210699688 KCal/s  x  600sec = 26.9 KCal
So how many lbs of vegetables would you need to produce 26.9 KCal
Lettuce is 67.37 KCal per lb so you would need 26.9/67.37 = 0.40 lbs of lettuce per day from your 100 sq ft garden. If you harvest 8lbs / day the net gain is 19.97 times
Tomato is 80 KCal per lb so you would need 26.9/80 = 0.34 lbs of tomatoes per day from your 100 sq ft garden  If you harvest 100lbs / day the net gain is 296 times

Below is a list of common vegetables which I got from http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calories_in_vegetables.htm


Lets put this in perspective of a soil-less aquaponic or hydroponic system:
Lets say you use a 20 watt pump 5 hours a day.
    Thats 20 watt-hours x 5 hours/day = 100 Watt-Hours / day  (W-Hr/day)
    Each W-Hr is equal to 0.859845227859  KCal so you spend about 86.0 KCal to pump water each day.

If you grow 8 lbs of lettuce per day on your 100 sq ft aquaponics garden,
8lb/day x 67368 cal/lb = 538944 cal/day or  ,  538.944Kcal/day

You would spend 86.0 KCal to pump water to produce 538.944 KCal of lettuce.
A return of over 6.27 to 1.  Not quite 19.97 times like soil gardening but pretty good!



How about tomatoes...
Lets say you grow 100 lbs of tomatoes per day in your 100 sq ft garden.   
Let also say you use the same amount of electricity - (86.0 KCal/day).
100 lb/day x 80 KCal/lb = 8000 calories/day
So you would spend 86.0 KCal/day to produce 8000 KCal of tomatoes.
A return of over 92 to 1.  Soil gardening was 296 but this is not bad!

Compared to soil gardening the power efficiency is not as good, but water is also a commodity worth preserving and my guess is any of the soil-less methods will beat soil based gardening several times over.   It gets pretty complicated if you consider that some of the water applied to soil returns to the aquifer but ponics are definitely more efficient with water.  

Back to my hydroponic system which consumes 137.6 KCal per day.  It would need to produce 1.72 lbs of tomatoes per day.  But this is just the power used to move water.  Warren Brush was including the power used to make fertilizers, mine, and apply nutrients, and maintain the crop from start to finish.  Thats beyond the data available to me, but at least it still looks like a positive net gain whether you are gardening with soil or without and probably far better than the modern agriculture system using ten calories of energy to produce one calorie of food.

Aquaponics has a side benefit of fish protein which I have not included, but the energy used to make fish food should be considered.  Bioponics on the other hand is free of any further input save iron and magnesium which is also required in aquaponics.


Ill admit this article was difficult for me,  I feel like I have dyslexia where it comes to keeping units straight.  If you find any errors I will correct them, but to my best knowledge I have presented this correctly.

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Linduino USB Isolated Arduino Working With DACs and ADCs

Linear Technology products, including ADC & DAC

So a lot of microcontroller (MCU) topics I write about in this blog are mini-research projects for me, because Im new to MCUs and to electronics in general. Through my research I get to learn more about MCUs and how theyre used, and, with a little luck, you get to be informed or amused, or both, by the posts here. But todays topic, Linduino, DACs and ADCs, is even further than normal from my experience and knowledge base, so this post will just give you an overview of the Linduino board from Linear Technology.

"Linduino is a USB-isolated Arduino," an August 11 post on EDN.com, caught my interest because of the *duino name and because the post mentioned applications involving temperature sensors (Humboldt MCU Garden project), audio systems (Humboldt Laser Harp and other music-light instruments) and car systems (Ed Smith is a great resource for vehicle-related MCU projects, possibly something with on-board diagnostics, or OBD). Familiarity with the Linduino board isnt required to do any of the aforementioned Humboldt MCU projects, but at some future point a Linduino could provide major benefits for us. If nothing else, it would be worthwhile to connect with some of the *duino people at Linear Technology, the manufacturer of the Linduino, to expand and strengthen the statewide and worldwide network of the Humboldt MCU community. Plus, their headquarters are in Milpitas, California, so maybe theyll get the urge to drive north behind the redwood curtain and participate in a Humboldt Microcontrollers Group meeting or a Humboldt Makers meeting!

Linduino board

Onward to tech specifics about Linduino. The EDN blog post mentioned above says:

"My pals over at Linear Technology have developed the Linduino board to drive their ADCs (analog to digital converters) and DACs (digital to analog converters) as well as temp sensors and other devices...in addition to the normal shield headers on an Arduino, there is a header that Linear Tech has used for years to drive their demo boards. This computer interface function used to be done with their DC590 interface board. Indeed, the firmware that comes shipped with the Linduino emulates that board, so you can run the original Linear Tech interface program on your PC...The Linduino board will accept all the shield mezzanine boards for Arduino, but has this extra header to control Linear Tech demo boards...Linear Tech also used one of their USB isolators on the Linduino board. This means that the board and what you plug into it are galvanically isolated from the computer you have the USB plugged into. This means you can measure things off a car or an audio system without worrying about ground loops polluting the measurement...Since Linear Tech is also a power supply chip company, they beefed up the power supply on the board, using a switching regulator to replace the linear regulator on the Arduino. This means you can get 750mA out of the power system. Since a USB can’t supply this much power, that means you have to feed the board with an external wall wart. Now you have the power to drive actuators or other heavy loads..."

Were in the early stages of refining the Humboldt Laser Harp, and depending how deep we get into developing the Humboldt family of laser harps and other light-music MCU instruments, there may come a time when well need, or at least want, a board that can be used on "an audio system without worrying about ground loops polluting the measurement." Thats one of the reasons I am interested in the Linduino board.

The main Linduino webpage has lots of info and links about the board, including several internal blog posts and an overview video about Linduino. Since getting two viewpoints about what the board is and does might help you better understand its value, heres the Linear Technology webpage description of what Linduino is:

DC2026A-KIT

"Linduino is Linear Technology’s Arduino compatible system for developing and distributing firmware libraries and example code for Linear Technology’s integrated circuits. The code is designed to be highly portable to other microcontroller platforms, and is written in C using as few processor specific functions as possible. The code libraries can be downloaded by clicking the Downloads tab above and used as-is in your project or individual code snippets may be viewed in the Code section of a supported part. The Linduino One board (Demonstration Circuit DC2026A) allows you to test out the code directly, using the standard demo board for the particular IC. The Linduino One board is compatible with the Arduino Uno, using the Atmel ATMEGA328 processor. This board features a 14-pin “QuikEval” connector that can be plugged into nearly 100 daughter boards for various Linear Technology parts, including Analog to Digital converters, Digital to Analog Converters, high-voltage power monitors, temperature measurement devices, RF synthesizers, battery stack monitors, and more."

Humboldt Laser Harp and Ed Smith

Linduino is not inexpensive, so participants of the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group wont be buying them on a whim like a $3 Arduino Micro clone from China. But if someone has a genuine need for the board, especially a business-related, revenue-generating need, it would be good to know its available. You can order the board from this Linear Technology page, and there are two options. One option is the DC2026A-KIT for $125, and the other is just the DC2026A board for $75. Digi-Key, Newark and Arrow are also distributors for Linear Technology.

So now you have a general idea of what the Linduino board is and can do, and youve got links above that lead to more info about this member of the continually-expanding *duino family. Ill have to check in with Ed Smith to find out exactly what value this tool might have for us while working on the Humboldt Laser Harp, the Humboldt MCU Garden or any other MCU projects our MCU group or maker group gets involved with.

**********

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Airlifts Geysers and AquaZen

I want to begin by saying I am not an expert with airlift design.  My results  differ from others who have spent more time experimenting with airlift technology.

I like airlifts because they are less expensive to operate and can be built for only a few dollars.   Airlifts aerate the water and are able to pass objects such as way ward fish without clogging.  They have no moving parts; instead they rely on an external air pump which would in most aquaculture systems already be present.

In the video below I experimented with three types the pumps.  A simple Airlift, a Geyser Pump and an AquaZen Airlift.  This video documents the results.

This video shows me running five different airlift configurations.
All of the designs performed very close to each other.
Some factors that may be influencing the differences are the diameter of the pipes and the number of turns.
Each test was performed with a 200 lpm EcoPlus 7 air pump running at 93W.
The vertical pipe was submerged 24-1/2" and the rise was 13-1/2" +/- 1"


Test #1 Simple Airlift with Separator - 5 gal/62 seconds
Test #2 Simple Airlift w/o Separator - 5 gal/58 seconds
Test #3 Geyser with Separator - 5 gal/74 seconds
Test #4 Geyser w/o Separator - 5 gal/50 seconds
Test #5 AquaZen - 5gal/58 seconds

In each case the separator appears to actually reduce the performance. Sorry I did not run the Aquazen test without the separator.  I believe the loss of performance is due to my design and I will try to make this part more efficient.

The Geyser and Simple Airlift performed as well or better than the AquaZen. But there are many factors that may have been overlooked. As far as I know the check valve was installed correctly and there were no significant leaks. The submersion and rise were kept within a 1" tolerance and the barrel was filled to the top each time.

I hope others will take the time to build and test these, and other airlift pumps. More data might help. It may also be that they each operates best at different lifts. I still have so much to learn

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Solar Energy And Arduino Solar Charge Controller

Theres an intriguing microcontroller (MCU) project in an August 8 article on Design News titled "Gadget Freak Case #260: Arduino Solar Charge Controller." I havet read a lot about solar energy and Arduinos, or any other MCUs, so I took a closer look at the article.

Residential active solar energy system (from Wikipedia CC)

Many Humboldt County people seem interested in solar energy, although the often-foggy or cloudy climate of Arcata, Eureka, and other coastal communities isnt as well suited to solar energy collection as the climate of New Mexico or Arizona cities. However, it is still good to be experienced with technologies used outside the North Coast, and there are plenty parts of Humboldt County not immersed in marine fog banks or redwood forest mists. For this reason it would be useful for participants in the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group to know the basics of active solar energy systems and to have experience with the electronic components and operation of those systems. The topic of the Design News article above isnt an inexpensive basic active solar energy system, but I think Ill do some research regarding different types of inexpensive systems for a future group project.

Solar charge controller schematic from CirKit.com

The solar charge controller that is the topic of this post is located between the solar energy collection device and the energy storage system, usually a battery. The controller regulates both the voltage and the current going to the energy storage system from the energy collection device. The schematic at the right from CirKit.com shows the general concept (although that schematic is not from Gadget Freak project). The Design News article describes the function of the Arduino this way:

"This gadget uses Arduino to control the whole process and takes a voltage reading from the solar panel and the battery to be charged. Then, according to voltage levels on either side, it charges the battery using PWM control signal. Energy flow is driven with MOSFET transistors that ensure low energy loss. The charging controller is equipped with basic filters on both the battery side and the solar panel side. It is also equipped with things like overcurrent, overvoltage, PV panel reverse current, auto load disconnection, and overcharge protection."

Gadget Freak #260: solar charge controller (Design News PDF)

The solar charge controller build instruction PDF is linked to in the article, and seems like a good quality document. It has pictures, circuit drawings, Arduino code, and the type of helpful tips that many project documents do not include. An example of the helpful tips is where the project creator describes how to choose MOSFETs. For people who arent already familiar with MOSFET properties and how theyre used, he says this about drain source voltages for MOSFETs:

"When the MOSFET is turned off, the whole supply voltage will be measurable across it, so this rating should be larger than your supply voltage to provide sufficient protection so that the MOSFET does not fail. The maximum voltage a MOSFET can handle varies with temperature."

He also talks about whether to use an n or p channel MOSFET, continuous drain currents, thermal loss, gate threshold voltage and more. Tips like this are especially useful to people like me who are new to microcontrollers.

In months and years to come, it is my hope that the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group will build many MCU devices and systems. Nicks automated chicken coop door is the first one, as far as I know, and the Humboldt Laser Harp is the second, I think. It would be great if we can develop and put online as much information as possible about these MCU projects, assuming theyre not going to be commercialized so they can earn us millions. Or even thousands. Anyway, part of gathering, organizing and publishing this MCU project information should be a good documentation format. There are many possible formats, but the Gadget Freak build instruction PDF used in the solar charge controller project seems like a good place to start if someone in the MCU group doesnt have a different project information format they prefer.

Gadget Freak (from Design News and Allied Electronics)

This Gadget Freak topic appears to be a regular feature of the Design News website. This solar charge controller is labelled #260. I dont know if that means there are 259 previous Gadget Freaks, but here are links to The Best of Gadget Freak Volume 1 and The Best of Gadget Freak Volume 2. Design News collaborates with Allied Electric, and they invite you to submit your electronics projects for publication. This is just one more way that people in the Humboldt MCU community can participate in the expanding world of microcontrollers and possible earn a few bucks. The Gadget Freak page on Allied Electrics site says:

"Are you a Gadget Freak? Allied Electronics and Design News would like to send you a check for $500 to spend at alliedelec.com or anywhere you please! Submit your design for a gizmo or gadget that any Gadget Freak would appreciate, and you just might win! If your project is selected, you’ll receive a $500 check from Design News and will be featured in an upcoming issue of the magazine with your invention. In addition to the $500 awarded for being selected as a Gadget Freak, all selected gadgets...will be included in the Gadget Freak of the Year contest. Starting in November, the readers of Design News will then vote on the best gadget...The winning gadget will receive an additional $6,000 with two runners-up who will receive $2,000 each."

If youve built solar energy devices or systems with MCUs, it would be great if you came to one of the every other Thursday meetings the MCU group has. The next meeting will be on Thursday, August 24. If you cant make it to the meeting but would be interested in discussing your solar energy device or system, please email me at arcatabob (at) gmail {dott} com

. It would be great to meet you for coffee and a tech discussion, or possibly youd be willing to show the MCU group your MCU in operation!

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Low Energy System Design

...Download this Sketchup Model..

This system has two radial filters and a media bed to keep the deep water culture raft very clean, An airlift pump keeps the water moving via an air compressor; no mechanical water pumps are required

Water levels in all the tanks are the same. By not raising the water from a sump tank only a small amount of energy is required to move the water laterally.

If this entire system were buried flush with the ground the thermal mass of the earth would help regulate the temperature very well during both summer and winter 

Airlifts  provides both water circulation and aeration. I believe airlift pumps can be more efficient than an external pump.  (Ive never understood why submersibles are always less efficient, but the specs tend to indicate this).
Airlifts can be calculated.
This article Performance Study of an Airlift Pump with Bent Riser Tube presents an interesting conclusion is that bends in the riser pipe do not effect the performace of an airlift pump.
OPTIMIZATION OF A BACKYARD AQUAPONIC FOOD PRODUCTION SYSTEM
is a very good paper about aquaponics and it would be a very good source for information about airlift pumps but a critical table is missing.  Id still recommend reading it for everything else it presents.



I found this calculator for airlift pumps.  It is spot on against the real life experiments Ive conducted.

From my own experiments without math; I believe an airlift will provide enough water circulation.  That is also what Keith Tatjana demonstrates in his paper in which he assumes a circulation rate of one fish tank volume twice per hour.
I think air blowers are more reliable than water pumps, and less expensive.  Blowers do not provide the pressure like a compressor so this is a limiting factor when using a blower, but if at all possible use an air blower because air compressors like the Hydrofarm 70 and 110 lpm units tend to vibrate themselves to death.
I have not done any experimentation with how much ambient air temperature will affect the water temperature, but logically this would occur whether it be from an air stone or an airlift pump.
Other papers Ive found are

Performance Characteristics of Airlift Pumps withVortex Induced by Tangential Fluid Injection

Explore the Potential of Air-Lift Pumps and Multiphase   Explore the potential of air-lift pumps  A geyser pump, an improved airlift pump The Geyser Pump improved the amount of water pumped from 40 gpm to 60 gpm in one experiment I conducted.   This Video shows the Geyser Pump I built. http://youtu.be/ztHBHULkHNQ

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