Ric Murphy
13th April 2007, 19:38
Greetings all,
Been browsing this site for a few weeks now and became a member just the other day. Thought I’d take a minute or 2 and introduce myself to everyone (hope I’m not too long winded but people are to read anyway aren’t they?).
I’m an ex factory worker (the last 23 years in automotive wiring harnesses and DC electrical systems). I live in Southwestern Ontario, Canada on my families 60 acre century farm. 2 years ago I decided to take up farming and left the plant. Due to depressed crop prices we had to consider some alternatives to conventional farming. First decision was to go organic, second was to include vegetables with the cash crops. In order to procure an adequate supply of organic vegetable seedlings we also erected a greenhouse. Considerations for the greenhouse included heat, electricity and irrigation. Having a long history of interest in RE energy as well as sustainable living I contemplated how I could tie those into the greenhouse. With all of this so new to me, I had no real data to use for planning purposes. I had no idea what the req’d Kwh’s/day would be, or the BTU’s req’d to heat basically a large plastic tent all winter, or how many gallons/day of irrigation water I’d need. So (flying by the seat of my pants) I first buried a 750gal water tank under the greenhouse. I plumbed all the main and drip gutters into this tank. I filled it in Nov of 2005 when we completed the greenhouse and have not had to bring in a drop of water since. Last summer we washed vegetables, tractors and anything else around here and still never ran out (although we came very close once). We had a very wet season here last year though so I suspect I will at some point have to bring in water. I think a 1000g storage tank would have been more appropriate now. For heat I chose a 110,000btu corn furnace figuring we’d grow the corn ourselves. Last winter I averaged 3.75 bushels per day (@ about $3.00/bu) and was able to keep the temp above 40f even on the coldest nights. Problem is trying to grow corn organically without all the inputs (fertilizers) conventional farmers use. However I found this furnace also burns rye very well (better than corn in my opinion) and grows very well without any help (actually it’s harder than hell to kill!!!). So that only left electricity. I have grid access but would need uninterrupted supply to maintain the furnace incase of blackouts. I could have went with a generator but thought maybe I’d finally found at least some justification for installing an alternative energy system. I started with a 900w turbine mounted on a 72’ tilt up tower. Tower is 4” pipe built and designed by myself (I did hire a welder to do the critical welds though!!!!). I also purchased 600w of solar along with 7000w of inverters and a 1000ah battery bank. The system is 24v. All the components are housed in an insulated cube van box with the panels mounted on the top. I quickly found that the greenhouse consumption exceeded what this system would produce. In Jan of this year I added another 300w of solar and ordered an additional 300w earlier this week (new capacity will be 1200w). I’m also going to move the panels off the roof and onto an adjustable pole mount for increased output (manual adjust for now). I believe that I will easily be able to exceed the greenhouse demands with the above additions. Only time will tell though. Anyway I’ve likely rambled on enough for my first post…..best save something for another day! Some pictures below of my operation.
Ric
123
124
125
Been browsing this site for a few weeks now and became a member just the other day. Thought I’d take a minute or 2 and introduce myself to everyone (hope I’m not too long winded but people are to read anyway aren’t they?).
I’m an ex factory worker (the last 23 years in automotive wiring harnesses and DC electrical systems). I live in Southwestern Ontario, Canada on my families 60 acre century farm. 2 years ago I decided to take up farming and left the plant. Due to depressed crop prices we had to consider some alternatives to conventional farming. First decision was to go organic, second was to include vegetables with the cash crops. In order to procure an adequate supply of organic vegetable seedlings we also erected a greenhouse. Considerations for the greenhouse included heat, electricity and irrigation. Having a long history of interest in RE energy as well as sustainable living I contemplated how I could tie those into the greenhouse. With all of this so new to me, I had no real data to use for planning purposes. I had no idea what the req’d Kwh’s/day would be, or the BTU’s req’d to heat basically a large plastic tent all winter, or how many gallons/day of irrigation water I’d need. So (flying by the seat of my pants) I first buried a 750gal water tank under the greenhouse. I plumbed all the main and drip gutters into this tank. I filled it in Nov of 2005 when we completed the greenhouse and have not had to bring in a drop of water since. Last summer we washed vegetables, tractors and anything else around here and still never ran out (although we came very close once). We had a very wet season here last year though so I suspect I will at some point have to bring in water. I think a 1000g storage tank would have been more appropriate now. For heat I chose a 110,000btu corn furnace figuring we’d grow the corn ourselves. Last winter I averaged 3.75 bushels per day (@ about $3.00/bu) and was able to keep the temp above 40f even on the coldest nights. Problem is trying to grow corn organically without all the inputs (fertilizers) conventional farmers use. However I found this furnace also burns rye very well (better than corn in my opinion) and grows very well without any help (actually it’s harder than hell to kill!!!). So that only left electricity. I have grid access but would need uninterrupted supply to maintain the furnace incase of blackouts. I could have went with a generator but thought maybe I’d finally found at least some justification for installing an alternative energy system. I started with a 900w turbine mounted on a 72’ tilt up tower. Tower is 4” pipe built and designed by myself (I did hire a welder to do the critical welds though!!!!). I also purchased 600w of solar along with 7000w of inverters and a 1000ah battery bank. The system is 24v. All the components are housed in an insulated cube van box with the panels mounted on the top. I quickly found that the greenhouse consumption exceeded what this system would produce. In Jan of this year I added another 300w of solar and ordered an additional 300w earlier this week (new capacity will be 1200w). I’m also going to move the panels off the roof and onto an adjustable pole mount for increased output (manual adjust for now). I believe that I will easily be able to exceed the greenhouse demands with the above additions. Only time will tell though. Anyway I’ve likely rambled on enough for my first post…..best save something for another day! Some pictures below of my operation.
Ric
123
124
125