Solar Thermally Pumped Hydroponic System

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This is a small scale test system for the idea of using temperature differentials to operate a ebb andflow hydroponic system.

The theory behind it is the idea gas law PV=mRT. That is an increase in temperature in the gastrapped in the reservoir leads to an increase in volume of the gas.

Step 1: MaterialsA 2 liter bottlea 1 liter bottlecapssuperglueaquarium hose and fittingblack painttapeperlite

Step 2: The coupler

See More

for Vegetables, Herbs or

Flowers

by dirty_valentine

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by Gabriel M.

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Expandable Hydroponics

System

by Dandeman321

How to build a desktop

aquaponics system for

indoor gardening.

by Get Forked

Vermiponic Gardenby liquidhandwash
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The coupler is made by joining two bottle tops together face to face, if you heat the surface of eachbreifly with a lighter you can then super glue them together. Once the super glue dries drill a holethrough the adjoining faces of the caps and glue in an aquarium tubing fitting, then add a length oftubing sufficient to reach the bottom of the 2 liter bottle.
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Step 3: The reservoir

is made from the 2 liter bottle. Wrap the threads with tape and run a strip down one side, now spraythe bottle with black paint to increase the amount of energy captured.

When dry remove the tape and fill half way with your nutrient mixture.

Step 4: The pot
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is just a 1 liter water bottle with the bottom cut off and an overflow hole, to account for extraordinaryrainfall, placed half way up the side.

Step 5: Assemble and test
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The coupler is screwed onto the reservoir bottle and the 1 liter bottle screwed on top of the coupler.Take the bottle outside and place in the sun, watch as the water is pumped up into the bottle as thereservoir is heated by the sun.

Although the original theory was based on the differential between day and night temperatures,observations showed that clouds passing in front of the sun was sufficient to cause a rapid change inthe water level, providing a continual refreshing of the nutrient to the plant.

Step 6: Set it and forget it
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Fill the "pots" with perlite and plant. In one I planted gota kola, another onion seeds and the third abasil cutting, place somewhere sunny and forget it until instructables has a bottle contest ;-).

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Jan 23, 2009. 6:57 AM Reply

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SixTwelvesays:

Tool Using Animal(author) in reply to SixTwelve

DIY-Guyin reply to Tool Using Animal

ranguasays:

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What a cool idea! I wonder, though, if you're having any blow-back from heating thenutrient solution? Black plastic can get pretty hot in the sun, at least in my neck of thewoods. Now that you've done the proof of concept, it wouldn't take much to heat the airand shelter the fluid. Or am I being a ninny?

Nope, you're not. I responded to someone else that you could use a separate airchamber. I haven't done so, but there's no obvious reason it wouldn't work.

Would glass bottles be a good choice for the air-expansion-solar-collection-chamber? Such as 1.5 liter wine bottles?

I've been thinking about the numbers involved. I haven't figured out how to solve the wholesystem at once, but just as an approximation i've worked out the following (criticismwelcomed)

The gas law predictsP*V/T = constantat first we fill the conainter with a certain volume of water leaving V_0 volume of air attemperature T_0 and atmosferic pressure P_a.At the peak temperature you wish your container is fully filled with a volume V_c of water,meaning that in the tank you have V_0+V_c volume of air, at temperature T, and pressure(P_a+rho*g*H) where H is the height from the water level in your container to theremaining water level in the tank.soP_a V_0/T_0 = (P_a +rho*g*H)*(V_0+V_c)/Tor

T/T_0 = [1+(rho*g*H/P_a)]*[1+(V_c/V_0)]since 1 atm is about 10^5 pascals, and rho*g is about 10^4, your height is being multipliedby 0,1. say, one meter gives you a 1.1 factor already, which, for a T_0=290K=18C isabout a 30C change! i think that's a lot, right?Also, making your container bigger and keeping your water level low inside maximizes theefficiency for the volume part.

Please review/correct/expand my equations.

you could maximize the efficiency if you froze your tank first and then closed thecaps. you could take the height waaay up :Don the downside, youd have to freeze your nutrients everytime you refill.

Freezing water causes it to expand. It sounds counterproductive to your idea, but Ihave not tested it. I'm interested in learning the answer, what do you think?
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Justin9235says:

Orngrimmsays:

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fozzy13says:

autokymaticsays:

vampierwolfsays:

andycycasays:

Love this instructable, and considering doing my own setup on a big scale. How fast wereyou seeing water pump from one chamber to the next?

"place somewhere sunny and forget it until instructables has a bottle contest ;-)."And why isnt this in the bottle contest then??? ;)

Nice idea of s imple principle. Well made and coo output.

PET water bottles and 2-liters are made as one time use plastics. They will leach harmfulchemicals into your nutrient solution and ultimately your plant, especially at higher temps,and in direct sunlight. Experiments with PET for hydroponics should be kept to ornamentalplants only.

Nice concept however. Although, when I grow with hydroponics, my plants like my nutrientsto be around 60F degrees. Any temperatures warmer and you can experience lessnutrients uptake by the plants, as well as bad bacteria growth in nutrients.

The concept should work equally well with metal or glass or even ceramiccontainers.

This is such a cool concept, and I never thought about it before. I might make one justbecause of the awesome solar-pump concept. It seems like it could have otherapplications. Thanks for posting : )

Aren't light and algae on the roots problematic? Was it suggested to make an opaqueshield for the 1L top planter?

Do you think you could put this in an enclosed system... like a terrarium?

Brilliant idea. I've never actually tried hydroponics, so I'm going to ask a few questions thatmay be obvious:

1. I noticed you drilled an extra hole to prevent overflow (nice!) but I'm concerned about theseedlings getting enough water/nutrients. Did you "bury" the seeds? Did they needadditional water as seedlings?
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seandoguesays:

OUTATIME1290says:

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2. (I may have misread) Which hose diameter did you use? I think that is relevant to thisproyect, as it affects how "easily" the solution will go up and how much will actually befeeding the "pot"

3. During the day, how much time did you have water in the "pot"? Is it constantly going upand down? Does the water level change quickly?

4. You said your reservoir didn't needed refills for months. Does anyone know whetherstoring the nutrient solution affects their concentracion? I mean, theoretically speaking, thecompounds won't react between themselves, but they may precipitate...

very smart idea. thank you!

would this work inside a building under a grow light that's on a timer for an extended periodof the day?

Check out some other plans, if you are willing to use electricity on the lighting youshouldn't be too worried about using an air or water pump that you would need tomake this work indoors.

We come back to the problem of having a

sufficient temperature change to cause the fluid tobe pumped up, further down in the commentslocating a remote reservoir by a heat register issuggested. But untested. The seeds were justsprinkled on top .

that's cool! is it better then planting straight into the ground and watering with nutrients?

It depends on where you live, if you're on a farm in Idaho, no. But if you're anapartment dweller or live in the south where we have severe problems with soilparasites, yes.

Actually it depends. On a farm you might be able to more efficiently grow a largecrop load, but hydroponic grown plants usually have better nutrition as you control
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Feb 15, 2009. 9:30 PM Reply

Jan 26, 2009. 7:49 AM Reply

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Jul 10, 2010. 9:00 AM Reply

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Mar 17, 2010. 11:26 AM Reply

spiderwolfin reply to Tool Using Animal

Sandisk1duoin reply to Tool Using Animal

Captainsimon12says:

downgradein reply to Captainsimon12

woodstockbirdysays:

Tool Using Animal(author) in reply to woodstockbirdy

what goes into them. Granted someone planting in the soil could possibly controlthe nutrients to come up with a better plant, but it is unlikely, and nearlyimpossible on a large scale, but you can also mess up growing things withhydroponics... but then again this system, where as it works, isn't exactly precisionbased.

Haha I live in Idaho. It's rather easy to grow things here. Except our winters are

cold and long as hell!

alright i'll have to try this some day..

Love the idea, and I'm considering making a larger-scale version at home. Can I suggestimprovements?

1 - The base bottle probably softens up (however slightly) when heated. It would expand asthe pressure inside builds. If a more rigid base container were used, one that (ideally)doesnt change at all, then the setup would probably be significantly more efficient.

2- If you were to somehow increase the surface area of the base container (providing alarger surface to face the sun) the effectiveness would also improve. I was thinking ofsoemthing along the lines of the fridge backing used in thisInstructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Thermal-Water-Heater-For-Less-Than-Five-Doll/ .It is metal, and therefore absorbs the heat more effectively than a plastic bottle.Although.... it may cook the plants before they are fully grown.... Maybe if there were aresevoir between the base and the bottle with the plant in it that the water could cool in,but still maintain the pressure needed to keep the water moving....

Just a thought. This is a truly genius idea. Props.

To your first point, it makes me wonder if you could find some ducting that wouldwrap around the bottle nearly perfectly.. the metal would heat up pretty good andif it was tight against the bottle stop it from expanding and instead push the waterup more efficiently... If you got the ducting like that which is intended forconnecting to a drier or something it isn't a full cylinder so you could do somethinglike put large zip ties around it to hold it to the bottle I would think.

what is perlite?

Expanded volcanic rock used as a soilamendment, sold in garden centers.
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Apr 25, 2009. 2:56 PM Reply

Apr 21, 2009. 12:47 AM Reply

Apr 20, 2009. 12:49 PM Reply

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Apr 20, 2009. 7:08 PM Reply

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Apr 7, 2009. 4:09 AM Reply

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Apr 7, 2009. 6:42 AM Reply

simpkinsays:

Dharqsays:

NaTeB1says:

Tool Using Animal(author) in reply to NaTeB1

hootie233says:

Tool Using Animal(author) in reply to hootie233

hootie233in reply to Tool Using Animal

Great instructable, I just happened to have some spare plastic bottles laying around andgrabbed some "Soaker hose" from home depot came in about 50 feet for 8$. I did a slightlymodified version using 2 Gatorade bottles one small as the growing container, a large oneas a reservoir and painted them both glossy white. Then a 2 Ltr soda bottle painted flatblack with an additional hose to the top of the reservoir to provide solar pressure. I wasamazed at how responsive this setup was to sunlight and clouds. Going to play with it alittle more and soon hope to have many setup growing veggies. depending on our sodaand Gatorade intake...

I think if you paint the bottle white up to the water level in the lower bottle and the air filledsection black, that should help keep the water cooler while still letting the air expand andcontract as needed

No offense intended, I do like the idea of using the sun to power anything but this systemhas some major flaws The nutrient solution will be way to hot and stagnate, which prettymuch counters any advantages of using hydroponics How will the roots get moisture atnight? Also you should consider shielding the grow site from sunlight as well to help keepalgae from growing.

None taken, now allow me to rebut. The temperature and oxygen content of thenutrient solution in the reservoir are, in my opinion, irrelevant, any heat is quicklylost by the fraction pumped into the growing pot, and indeed none of the plantsshowed any ill effects. Secondly, even if it were a concern the option of a remote

air chamber is discussed further down the thread. The transpiration rate of plantsat night is a small fraction of what it is during the day, there is sufficient moistureto tide the plant over in the pores of the perlite. Lastly, I didn't have any whitepaint ;-)

wait wait wait, what are you guys saying should be done to fix this?

it doesn't need "fixing" we were discussing possible future improvements.

sorry, thats what I meant, i know that this set up would get the job done, I'm prettyexcited about it either way.
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Mar 28, 2009. 5:19 PM Reply

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Mar 11, 2009. 9:40 AM Reply

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Jan 23, 2009. 7:11 AM Reply

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agatornzsays:

Tool Using Animal(author) in reply to agatornz

julesflsays:

kudoskunsays:

OUTATIME1290says:

Olyveoilsays:

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now that is cool. i am in to passive systems or should i say those that dont rely onelectricity - and i like the look of this one - so how did the test go - has it panned out?

Well actually, shortly after this was posted, a very prestigious organizationcontacted me and asked if I could let them use it for an exhibition the are doing,so it's in an entirely different part of the country right now. I'll post more about itwhen I can.

Do you completely cut the bottom of the bottle off? How long is the tube going into thereservoir? Waiting for mine to work. Live in Fl, so should work. Awesome concept!

A half-full 2L bottle will get warm enough to push the nutrient solution into the 1L bottle?Are you expecting the rainfall to make up for the rest of the capacity of the 2L? What if youlive in Az, where rainfall is rare. Perhaps then fill the 2L reservoir to capacity?

AND how did you start the seeds? did you just plant them in the perlite and let it be?

This Instructable is totally cool and one that I'm definitely going to try. It combines twothings that I really love...science and gardening. Thanks for sharing.

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Solar Thermally Pumped Hydroponic System