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  1. #1
    Members
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    New York
    Posts
    3

    Designing a system for my home...

    First, I'd like to thank everyone for my welcome to this forum.

    To get started I want to describe the setting I have to work in. I had pictures to show you but need the administrator's assistance to upload them.

    The house was constructed in 1984, obtaining tax credits remaining from the Carter Administration for solar homes. The 1984 version of a solar home has interesting funky bits that don't work. The contractor did not correct for the declination of the compass, and the house faces more east than it should, for instance. Portions of the floor were intended to absorb and radiate heat (and do so in the summer), but instead, because of the thickness of the poured slabs, tend to sap heat away from the rooms in the winter. Still I'm having some fun in my very limited spare time working out the fixes. I don't plan on jacking the house up and turning it westward, but there's plenty to make it more cozy.

    It has a green house. It's eight feet by twelve feet and very vertical. thirteen feet to its roof peak. I'm on a knoll and the green house and a larger sunroom (300 square feet) are below the grade of other main rooms of the house. I look out the large skylights of the green house through the large windows I have on the south side of the kitchen.

    I am considering having the fish tanks in the cellar. The cellar could be most accommodating and its floor lies four feet below the grade of the slab for the greenhouse. There is eight feet of clearance in the basement below the floor joists.. Water is already plumbed to this area. All plumbing is copper. My water is from a well and is high in calcium.. I make minimal use of a furnace, mostly in January and February, the basement is consistently in the 60's Fahrenheit. The green house is actually more extreme in temperature variation, but not overly hot in the summer because I can readily ventilate it. I'm considering a new wood stove for the sunroom and can use it to provide supplemental heat to the green house should I wish.

    I have kept aquariums previously and I am influenced by Mr. Hallum's advice that larger systems are less prone to perturbations. I'm a trained biologist but I don't want to have to act too often as deus ex machina in the little world I am creating, if I can make it stable without heroic rescue efforts on my part.

    As of yet I am unsure what critters will inhabit my world. It appears many of the usual suspects discussed in these threads might like warmer water conditions to encourage their growth. Trout might find it a little too warm. I am uncertain what will be the heat transfers between what is now a warm basement and a cool green house (but this would soon change as the season changes). It is not out of the question to heat water by pumping it to a solar collector on the roof. I have no personal experience whatsoever as a plumber.

    The thermal mass of a fish tank in the green house combined with some supplemental wood heat in the winter months might actually be best, but I am most interested in the split level (and locale) approach. I also want to see some green through my kitchen windows at the top of the greenhouse.

  2. #2
    Members
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Jasper, IN United States
    Posts
    14

    Re: Designing a system for my home...

    I have my blue tilapia in the canning room/root cellar my older house came with... Stays 55 degrees year round and takes very little to heat the water to 65... With little fluctuation even with as cold of a winter were having here in southern Indiana. However I have little to offer as far as bi-level systems... One could assume a well enough insulated greenhouse using water tanks to asorb heat in the day would do the trick especially with supplemental heat from a wood burner.... Although tilapia have a fairly wide temp range for a tropical fish, you might consider catfish, perch, bluegill - more localized fish for your area already used to/adapted to the climate. You won't get the growth rates or "to market size" in several months, but you'd have a much less overhead system... With water transfer fom the basement should keep temp of greenhouse warm enough for yeast round growth... Many many factors to consider as you've identified, just wanted to possibly help with my two cents!

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