I riggged up an indoor windmill to test some ideas
Yes, I made an indoor windmill. Stop laughing. Please. No, really, stop laughing!
I am using the air coming out of a heat vent to test the concept as it’s a bit cold outside.
The windmill actuates a air pump valve
The air pump isn’t getting enough power to actually work, but it does prove that the concept should be able to be made. I blame the flimsy soda bottle. I had a hard time to get the curved bits to flare evenly. I used a lighter to heat the plastic a bit while I had positioned it where I wanted it. One half would work, the other doesn’t. Weirdness. I also used a bit of excess cat5 wire to hold the thing together. Not quite baling wire, but the tech-age equivalent.
An air pump head getting powered by a soda bottle windmill
The pictures are kinda hard to see what’s going on. so I made a video too.
It all started with a chat on the homepage of aquaponicscommunity.com with Johnny and Paul. Johnny said he was trying to figure out how to make a solids lifting siphon overflow box. Now, at first I didn’t think it could be done – having built a weir siphon overflow box in the past. But than I got to thinking… Which lead to a drawing…
Drawing of a Solids Lifting Siphon Overflow Box
Which lead to a construction project… using only stuff I had laying around.
You see, I had been wanting to add a sump – a smaller tank under a big fish tank that holds water – to my 75 gallon aquaponics system so that the water level in the main tank stays the same level (and to push the water over 100 gallons and the bragging rights that go with it). But to do that, I would need to build an overflow box. This would tank a fair amount of time and work, and more silicone that I have on hand to finish, using the methods I had already tried...
But not my Fountain Soda Solids Lifting Siphon Overflow Box.
Fountain Soda Solids Lifting Siphon Overflow Box
A solids lifting siphon overflow box will pull water from the bottom of the tank, where all the fish poo settles. This is a big deal for large aquaponics systems. Not so much a big deal for me right now, as there is only 2 fish in this particular aquarium.
The Jack Dempsey
But, I digress… what happens in a Siphon Overflow Box is that the water level rises in an aquarium to a certain height where the water flows out of the overflow box into the sump.
Plastic tote as a sump
What makes mine unique, is that I made it out of a leftover fountain soda cup. It’s what I had for a water holding container. I would have made a plexi box, but I was lazy and don’t have enough silicone on hand to make it. So I drilled a hole in the bottom of a cup that is just a smidgeon too small for the tubing and pushed hard. This gave me nearly a water tight seal, so a dab of silicone finished the job.
Near watertight joint without silicone
The tube that goes through the bottom of the cup (overflow box) is the stand pipe, which sets the height of the water in the aquarium.
The top tube is the stand pipe, the bottom tube the siphon from the aquarium.
Just trim the tube to the right hight, and you can control the water level in the aquarium. I’ve got it set so it’s just above the bottom of the plastic trim on the top of the tank. The water level rises a bit as the grow bed drains into the aquarium, so I wanted it to be as low as I could and still have the aquarium look full.
These nippers made reaching down and trimming the top of the tube easy.
So, with the addition of my super-fancy soda cup aquarium siphon, I now have 1 more thing in my Aquaponics system to go wrong and leak water all over the place. Being an expert in making leaks. I have held up the pickup tube for the water pump so it won’t pump all 30 gallons of water onto my basement floor. It should only be about 10 gallons!
Holding the pickup tube up high to minimize flooding when the siphon fails.
I put the siphon out where I can futz with it and it looks tacky as all get out. When I get the bugs all sorted out, it’s going against the wall side of the tank so it’s less visible.
I seem to have come in possession of a house as well. It requiredabitofwork.
With all of this happening in my life, I didn’t do near as much blogging as I probably ought to have. I did manage do some blogging work, migrating from Blogger to WordPress, although it was forced on me. Most of my ‘blogging’ seems to have occurred on twitter this last year, but I did manage to embed twitter into my blog.
It’s nice having awesome friends, between Jerry helping with the prep work, and Jeb helping feed the blower, I got the job done!
I had gotten sick between the time I started this project, and the time I could finish it, so it took me a bit longer than I had anticipated.
I finally rented a blower from Menards.
The Blower
Between it not being bolted down to the pallet they had it on, and it’s missing parts, It was a frustrating experience getting it home and set up.
Duct tape, the universal adapter!
I got the privilege of hanging out in my attic for 5 hours!
The job wasn’t near as bad as I thought it was going to be. The prep-work was harder than the actual blowing in of insulation. That isn’t to say, that the job was a cake walk.
A wee bit dustyWe got a bit dirty blowing in the insulation!
In the end, it was worth it! The gas bill was something like half as much for the month after we insulated from the month before, and it was much colder. I will have to run the numbers later, but I am expecting that the insulation will have paid for itself in energy savings the first winter!
All done!
I still have a bit of insulation to add. I came up a bit short, so I must have blow in insulation a bit thick in places. I am going to need to get a few more bags and toss the insulation in by hand. I made sure that the space left to do was close to the access hatch so it’s easy for me to do.
Not quite enough insulation - I tried to cover the small area left with some, but it got a bit thin here.
I also have to go around and insulate the rimjoists and find any drafts and close those up as well.
Bella and I where fixing an electric heater tonight.
Disasembled electric space heater
It was being tossed, so it was tossed in my direction because I guess I am known for collecting junk. Anyway, I’ve been wanting one for Bella’s room on them really cold nights. We’ve been kicking up the thermostat a degree or two and it seems to do the trick, but she’s about as far away from the furnace as you can get in my house.
She was so good watching me take the heater apart. I would show her a tool and tell her what I was doing. She seemed as genuinely interested as any 7 month old could about anything. I think she just liked all the ‘toys’ and movement. The fan just needed some oil on the fan motor bushings, so it took just a few minutes to fix.
Before putting it back together, I washed the only part big enough that she couldn’t swallow it. She was quite happy with the toy! She determined that the fan failed initially because it wasn’t properly taste-tested. She can now claim to have helped fix the space heater.
Bella doing a little Quality Control. The electric heater will now work correctly as it has been properly taste tested.
Last night the two of us tried to install a remote control for the fan in my room that was given to me. Mamma was cooking, so I was watching Bella. I was a bit concerned with how I had this rigged up for testing, but she was pretty interested in her bottle and the mirror I had set her beside by this point in the testing. She tolerated this pretty well. Never did get the fan control working.
Trying to hook up a remote unit to a ceiling fan.
Last week, the two of us where working on the treadmill I picked up from freecycle. She wasn’t so much loving this. She only lasted about 20 minutes. To her credit, it was kinda chilly in the basement and her bottle was empty. The speed control was burnt out. $60 for a new controller board. Eventually I will save up to get it. Hopefully the motor isn’t shorted or something to cause the controller board to fail like this. $60 for a treadmill in good shape is a great deal.
Blown transister on bottom left and blown capaciter in center 1/3rd from left.
I am hoping that I can get Bella interested in fixing stuff. The hobby is so important to me, it would be so much fun to have somebody to wrench on the cars with. The boys will think it’s pretty cool too when she gets old enough for that to matter to her.
