Can you light a greenhouse with FIBER OPTICS AND THE SUN?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2017
- Check out this video where we experiment with moving light into the building for our aquaponics system from the sun, using fiber optic cable, a fresnel lens, and an IR/UV filter.
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For it to be feasible at all the collecting area needs to be larger. Since we need 200 umol/m^2/s, a single bed with area approx = 3m^2 needs 600 umol/s. Therefore if the sun is supplying 2040 umol/m^2/s, you need at least 600/2040=0.294 m^2 of collecting area which corresponds to a circle with diameter 61cm or 24 inches.
Great catch Jake! Since there are 10,000 cm^2 in 1 m^2 this would mean the light hitting 1 cm^2 is 0.20 umol/cm^2/s. That sensor that he used couldn't be more than a few cm^2, which means he was actually getting a reasonable amount of light through his optic cable. I hope he's since realized that his experiment actually worked! It'd be sad if he still thought this didn't work just because he didn't take the collection area into account.
love the idea, i first saw a video a while back about a guy who installed fiber optics on his house to get light into his basement. he had some plants down there and he noticed that the plants he had did substantially better under the fiber optics. he attributed this to no uv coming in. i think fiber optics and growing indoors definitely has potential but more experimentation needs to be done as well as cost needs to come down before we could really start seeing implementation. keep up the great work! love the videos
That’s exactly what brought me here. Also learned about how poisonous bites and stings are naturalized by electric shock. Instantly and completely. Like a taser on a rattle snake bite. But you don’t even need that hardcore of a shock
The focal alignment is the most important. Without it you will never get even decent light the alignment needed is down to micrometers if you are using large core fiber you will be limited on length of cable but up to 2000 feet isn't a problem.
One promising company I saw an article used a central collection point with could be supplemented or replaced with an powered light source when the sun wasn't supplying enough. Ask your uncle for more info on what type of fiber he is trying to use and how well the different wavelength travel through it. For communications fiber you usually go from 800nm to 1610nm where chemical composition and core size will effect how well the light will pass. Great job on the fabrication and the ir/uv filter but you will need to really dial in focal system to very precise levels to get good light through.
Once the new skin is installed and the insulation is done you could cover the "dark wall" or entrances with that mylar you now have lying around, may reflect some light?
Brilliant idea...
Wouldnt a solar tube be alot cheaper and more efficient? Also a uv/ir filter should go before the fresnel otherwise you will burn the filter.
I have been designing a super well insulated indoor passive greenhouse/indoor garden and originally considered the fiber optics. After calling the companies that manufacture them I realized it is out of my budget for the light input needed. What initially attracted me to using fiber optics was that the grow space could be completely insulated, a highly controlled year round climate environment , without the heating and cooling costs of a seasonal outdoor greenhouse which are substantial when exposed to the ambient temperature fluctuations . I am now looking into solar tubes, but there is much more heat loss through the tube so it will likely need to be supplemented with air conditioning/heat.
Gone Beyond aluminum Light wave Guides
Good idea. Keep experimenting !
the S in Fresnel is silent.
You might be able to make mylar mirrors to hang on the north side to reflect the low angle winter light into the grow beds under the shelves. If you can get the right parabolic shape with cardboard and mylar they would be light weight and concentrate the light where you need it. Something to experiment with as long as you already have the mylar.
Maybe you should check out the Skylight tubing that they put in new construction homes these days they move sunlight from the skylights through these mirror tubes which are supposedly inexpensive but you can move a lot of light with them something worth checking out
This is a really cool concept. I see this being used just need to do some trial and error
Thanks for showing this info. Have you considered the large tube lighting that funnels light inside?
Any idea what size fiber optic cable/core is needed? Single core or multiple core?
Larger fiber optic cable would move more light? I saw a system that used a small dish
with a sun tracker for daytime light and a lamp installed inline of the cable at the collector when sunlight was unavailable; with that system, you would not need separate LED light bars.
Was the optical fiber PMMA(acrylic) or Glass(Silica)? It looks like your greenhouse is pretty large. I would use a single core silica with no filter for your application. There is no need to filter the UV/IR on a silica optical fiber for plant growth, especially with small Fresnel lens. The UV/IR filter is only needed for polymer based optical fiber. The silica optical fiber has less attenuation too, more costly upfront but worth it from a life cycle prospective. In addition, the sun's efficacy value can't be matched by the LEDs. The spark plug coupling method was pretty cool. I'll have to look at that. Thanks!
Have you gone back to this? You can definitely do it. sticking the fibers into a convex lens inside will diffuse the light. You really won't get much just from the ends of the fibers. Take it outside and adjust light output with focal point next to the collector with your eyes. Will be much more effective at getting the exact focal point which is critical like a light switch.
Nice experiment! I have fiberoptic cable coming into my house for TV/Internet/phone.:)
What about using something like aluminum angle stock, or create your own with sheet metal to go over the LED mounted to the bottom of the rack to spread the light out. Water from above would go around the angle (think upside down V) so that makes the water go around the lights as well. Another thought is mylar on just one side of the lane going vertically ad bounce light off that.
Fibre optics strands are designed for specific light lengths and I suspect that you received something meant for telecommunications rather than full-spectrum light. Please don't give up on this subject yet: I am just as interested in this as you are. I will do some research on my end and let you know the outcome. Keep up your excellent work.
Full spectrum light is white, so you can literally see with your eyes if it’s full spectrum or not. Fiber optics are used to actually light rooms, there are companies that do it, and he mentioned it in the video. I doubt they use some special kind of fiber optics, I think fiber optics is fiber optics, but I can be wrong, I’m not an expert
There are other tutorials on making solar collectors like this and they seem to work far better! Please don't give up on this idea! I plan to try and do this but for my sailboat to light the interior a bit better (when I get it!)
If a filter filters out the IR/UV light, the don't you Need to filter the light before it reaches its focal point? I would think that anything that stops UV/IR light (reflect or absorb) would still get far too hot from that much IR all in one tiny spot. (because even if they reflect the unwanted light, they're not 100% efficient as far as I know).
Sorry for off topic question, but I'm intrigued with how you feed your ever busy brain and as well as your physical activity. Do you take supplements/vitamins? What's your diet consist of. Thanks for the great videos as they are very inspiring, I just don't seem to have the energy to keep up.
Instead of spreading out the cable a simple way to create more light would be to simply bundle them together to create a more focused stronger light. Then use the beam with mirrors to spread the light over a lager area... And obviously you're going to need a lot more fibers to create enough light to cover an entire green house.... Just heard about this experiment and I'm very intrigued. . . Looking for Dr Kei Mori's 30ft tomato plant.is it a myth?
If you liquid cool the fiber optics cable you should be able to transfer more light or maybe even infared light, worth trying out
And then he would have to always keep them cool? Is it worth the effort, time and money?
Back in the '80's I saw a honeycomb solar collector with fiber optics which filtered out the harmful uv's and allowed only pure white light to be exposed at the end of the fiber cable, then a sphere shaped cone to spread light where needed.
Where can I see what your describing …thank you
Magnify, transport, redistribute, 🙂 nice . Its dark underground, and lightbulbs are just not as fulfilling as sunlight. Sending the magnified light in a reflected beam form, vs solid glass or glass like material filament systems could be deployed for different applications. Cool adventure into the ideas.💡
Dear friend, I disagree. The reason is simple. LED needs energy, and they have a lifespan. For those of us looking for solutions we can leave to the coming generations that could potentially face an scenario where electric energy or replenishing of the LED lamps is not going to be a possibility...money is quite well invested. I truly appreciate the effort, and the technical level of your video is good enough. I would give 5 thumbs up if I could. I will share it though, because surely some like-minded colleagues will find it useful.
Thanks for sharing!.
It would be more efficient to have another dedicated solar array to directly power the led lights during the day :-) it may also be worth looking into battery storage to make use of the solar you have more efficiently :-)
why you did not try solar light system ?
Succeed or fail, it's still fun to take the concept and play with it.
If you're serious about using solar power in winter, you need a steerable array of mirrors -- on the scale of your solar cell array. Basically, you'd need to construct the equivalent of a giant periscope to reflect light onto your hydroponic beds. Lots of engineering (which you like) but also a substantial amount of expense.
Couldn't you put the germination beds at the bottom and have the aquaponic grow bed on top? That would mean you don't have to spend so much effort trying to maximise and supplement natural light in the grow bed. I appreciate that it's a bit late now, I can't see you wanting to shift all that rock again. 😀
good experiment. Theory is useful too, can save doing some experiments. (Experiments are fun though, when affordable). If desired, Bing AI is useful for doing a lot of "what ifs" the "Balanced" setting seems to be the best. Remember: Junk IN = Junk OUT
I've been thinking about fresnel style difusion gels that we use in the DJ, Dance floor and Stage Lighting Business Gel Sheets are thin and flexible and can be cut with scissors or a craft knife. That said certain types are clear yet stamped or molded with various Fresnel patterns to them. One type when placed in front of a light that naturally has a 5 degree beam angle will spread it out to 20 degrees, Yet others can shape a light beam differently. The filter I think you need will take that same 5 degree fixture and smash the beam angle to 1 degree on one axis while spreading it out to 60 degrees on the other axis.
Heres the product i think you want...
www.adj.com/lsf-601-24
It is available at...
www.guitarcenter.com/Gels-Gobos-Lenses.gc#narrowSideBar
www.musiciansfriend.com/gels-gobos-lenses
www.pssl.com/Color-Gels-Lenses-Gel-Frames/ADJ-American-DJ?by=Category#200
You might get a little sticker shock but one sheet should cover several of your led grow light strips.
Here are a few YT videos to show you what im talking about...
th-cam.com/video/2e5laOQK-mA/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/NiUFZFR31cc/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/_9c1NDWmPJc/w-d-xo.html
I think the reason why it isn't as efficient could be because of losses in the different parts. I think if both the focusing lens were clearer & if the fiber-optic cable was of higher quality, then more light might have been collected.
Yeah this video is highly suspicious to me. As fiber optics are actually amazing. Its sunlight. This whole thing was very ... ahem..... shady.
4:32 "I can actually burn something, I can burn my hand" ... that is a weird choice :))
Some questions, and I think you've probably already been thinking on this, .... for the lighting experiments you have been running, you are using a "control" PAR number from the center of the lane. But that really isn't the control number because the light will be different once the building is re-covered. Do you have any info as to what the PAR gain will be when the light is coming through the clear cover vs the white cover? I assume it should be a significant gain. How does that effect that supplemental light equation? Also, moving sunlight is a good idea, but at your latitude do you have enough sunlight hours to justify that cost to do that? Aren't you still going to have to supplement sunlight in order to have enough hours of light for the plants to be productive?
Dont believe this video. Fiber optic is incredibly awesome and true sunlight. Well that was before they molested the sun and the skies.
I thought about this for a basement 👀
All that lens does is couple the light into the actual fibers themselves. What you're missing is the large parabolic concentrator to focus on your fiber optic light coupler. That will make your system FAR more feasible. Just missing your parabolic mirror my dude :)
Check out sun tunnels
Why didn’t you try using water? That’s how it’s been done. Inner reflective chamber source to source.
Too bad that didn't work out how you wanted.
Have you thought of putting the Mylar on the North side of the aquaponic bed and mounting the LEDs lengthwise on the southside of the upper shelf so the mylar can reflect the LEDs and spread the light "evenly" across the bed?
Solar Batteries as a source of light, illuminating the fiber and save
I was excited by this idea at first........but then.
Do it like the Egyptians did and pump the light in with a mirror onto a diffuser for the light
I needed some lights for my planted aquarium, I found some really, really cheap led lights from china on ebay, like 15 bucks. My plants are doing great under them, also there are really cheap flexible led ropes, you should experiment, test them, different color combos n stuff. The price is so low you got nothing to lose, it'd make an interesting video
Why not just use mirrors like Egyptians? What’s wrong about it?
Cool. We just need new tech.
I've suggested light pipes in the past......
Waveguides*
Hmmm, 40 bucks (once) + free sun = not worth it ? Darn, I guess my idea of installing solar panels is a no go either since the initial investment is higher than the initial gains.
4 minutes late.
Using fiber optics is futuristic
Five years Have past. Time for a re look
Fray-nel
Use laser
YOUR INITIAL OUTSIDE INTAKE SURFACE AREA ISNT BIG ENOUGH TO GAIN A FEASIBLE AMOUNT OF LIGHT. I WONDER IF YOU KEPT YOUR SETUP JUST AS IS EXCEPT THIS TIME FIND SOME MIRRORED OBJECT TO PLACE AROUND THAT INTAKE LENS WITH HOPES OF FOCUSING THE LIGHT INTO THE MIDDLE INTAKE LENS. SHOULD WORK BETTER MY FRIEND!
Dude just use mirrors that tracks the sun, and direct it into the greenhouse,
Like several, giant mirrors, with automated wipers. If your gearing is good enough then tiny motors will be good enough to turn them, and have a locking mechanism for storms
As far as 3d printing I have the ANET 8 3d printer it is a kit that comes out of china and is an inexpensive entry to the world of additive fab.
It's called the "parans system"
So you make a statement with this poor test, no focal alignement, the out optical fibre are not close enough, here they are larger than the PAR meter sensor so you don’t get all the might collected.
A guy achieved this and readed lots of lumens.
Make a proper test dude.
And you can’t compare the PAR readings of the sun when you put the PAR sensor on top of the lens, this PAR reading can only be compared if you do the focal centered right.
Lol