COMPARATIVE EFFICIENCIES OF HORIZONTAL VERSUS VERTICAL HYDROPONICS PLANT GROWTH SYSTEMS

 Concept Selection was done by using the pairwise comparison to create a  Pugh Chart Pairwise: Pugh Chart: Concept design 3 was chosen for the vertical system.

Concept design 3 sketches and description  This system consists of one 4-inch PVC grow tower holding twenty grow pockets along with a reservoir, irrigation system, water and air pump, outlet valve, drainage cover and end cap. The grow tower is 36 inches in length consisting with evenly distributed pockets, 6inches apart with a diametral hole of two inches. This distance gives the plant enough space to obtain maximum leaf coverage. The reservoir chosen is seal tight rectangular container with a length of 15 inches and width 10 inches that is dark in colorations to avoid algae growth. The reservoir stores the nutrient water along with a water and air pump installation. To accommodate the electrical cords, a rubber sealed hole was designed for cord lines to exit the system safely. In addition, an outlet valve was implemented at the base of the reservoir as a drainage mechanism of nutrient water, for sanitation purposes. An irrigation line of 2-inch PVC pipe is connected to the water p...

 Concept design 2 sketches - indoor system  The structure includes a rectangular 2 by 4 by 8 lumber frame, reservoir, irrigation system, water and air pump, timer, tube couplings, wye-tee joints, artificial lighting, and a water filter. The system is built for a controlled room indoors using artificial lighting and external fan. For irrigation, a half inch pole line runs horizontally along the top of the frame with 1/4-inch irrigation tubing connected from the water pump PVC line to the irrigation pipe using connectors. There are five irrigation tubing that runs into each section of grow towers. The towers are made up of 1.5-inch PVC pipes at 3.5 inches length connecting to five wye-tee joint per tower. The system slightly tilted forward so the nutrient flows down the front of the pipe therefore aerating the roots and water conservation. There are 20 slots with 8 1/2 inches off center between plants. Net pots are not used in this system, the plants are placed in rockwool and i...

 Sketches of concept design 1 were made.  This design consists of a PVC circular reservoir with a barrel shaped PVC grow tower, irrigation system, water pump, hose nuzzle, drainage container and outlet valve. The barrel shaped tower is place directing on the reservoir, above that includes a drainage contain. The tower has twenty net pot pockets for plants along with dummy holes to allow air to enter the system. An irrigation line was connected to the water pump vertically to the drainage container. Using a hose nuzzle, the nutrient water is pumped up the irrigation line through the nozzle and drained throughout the system via drainage holes. Excess water filled into the container was flowed back into the reservoir via overflow line. An outlet valve was installed at the base of the reservoir for sanitation purposes as well as a rubber sealed hole for the electrical cord to exit the system. The diagram blow shows a sketch of the intended design.

 black box design: input ----> function of the system-----> output 

 A selection criterion was assigned to ach metrics below Then a pairwise comparison was conducted 

 Today I received my certificate for doing the Hydroponics and Aquaponics online course.

Each customer need requirements were assigned a need number and was rated of importance in a scale of 1-5 where 5 being the best and 1 being the least important.    Upon completing this, each metrics were assigned a metric number whist compared to the need number corresponding to the the metrics then ranked by importance.