Aquaponics in the News

Got to spend the morning with one of my shale customers while they presented their system to CT Governor Dan Malloy and the Commissioner for the Department of Agriculture, Steven Reviczky. This footage was taken at the Arc of Meriden in their greenhouse



Other News Links:

Meriden Record-Journal
WTNH News 8
Patch.com

Another Teaser Video

I know some of you find these teasers agonizing, but here's the next one! Don't worry, the project is almost done and I won't torture you with these videos anymore!

Revision to the Rocket Mass Heater

I made a design revision to the rocket mass heater.  It makes a huge difference with being able to remove the ash out of the burn tunnel.

Building a Rocket Mass Heater

The rocket mass heater is up and running and it's quite the inferno!  It will be quite interesting to add some enhancements to it in the future.  I'm hoping to cover the entire unit and pump the heat under the floor to increase the thermal mass.  And, make it so it can burn either wood or pellets!

Rocket Mass Heater preview

Here's the teaser video for the rocket mass heater.  More details to follow!

Starting the Rocket Mass Heater

Today I finished building and fired up the rocket mass heater for the geodesic dome. Ironically, it's January and we're having record breaking warm temperatures in the 50's but I couldn't resist and started it up. I will do a full video about the construction in the future, but wanted to share a few pictures of it. This heater is a bit different than some you may see. I wanted to be sure there was enough drafting in the chimney so I doubled up the barrels.

The entire burn tunnel is buried under the floor. It took a little while to get the drafting to start. It didn't help that the internal chimney wasn't insulated yet (missing some parts for it), but once the system got warmed up, it turned into a raging inferno.

A picture without the flash shows how well the fuel is burning in the tunnel.

I ran out of sand so I wasn't able to completely bury the horizontal exhaust. It was quite hot to the touch, but as you moved down the pipe, I could hold my hand against the duct and it was slightly warm.  It was quite funny to see the sand around the duct drying out so quickly. It will be interesting to study the temperatures along the system in the future!

Carrots in an aquaponic system

Carrots are a great root crop that just about anyone can enjoy.  Some people think you can't grow them in an aquaponic system.  Here's proof that you can!