andrewwhartion

At around $20, something like an STC-1000 digital thermostat I'd consider pretty affordable for this type of application.

Abstract:

"This article describes a household refrigerator that requires about 0.1 kWh per day to operate. The refrigerator offers excellent food-preserving performance, because temperature fluctuations in its interior are naturally minimized during everyday use. This fridge is 10 to 20 times more energy efficient than typical household fridges on the market today. It seems that the biggest obstacles in increasing the energy efficiency and food- preserving performance of household refrigerators are strange human habits and lack of understanding of Nature, not technology or cost."

That's good to hear you've been having success with sand.

I'd love to hear how it's going after 12 months, because sand is certainly easier to work with than course gravel, which can be difficult to plant seedlings into, based on my own experience.

If this type of thing piques you interest, there is a vibrant aquaponics community with many forums eg. [1] and designs using all sorts of off-the-shelf parts.

IBCs and blue plastic drums are generally the "go to' solution [2] as they're made from HDPE, although some are made from plastics that are not considered food safe as they use mould release agents during the manufacturing process which are toxic (no reference for this at the moment, sorry).

Just be aware that generally you need A LOT more grow bed area than you would think to be able to efficiently use the fish tank volume. You can pack a lot of happy fish into a given volume of water.

Also, the general consensus is to use course gravel (20mm) rather than sand, as sand can quickly become blocked with organic material.

[1] http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/

[2] http://ibcofaquaponics.com/

[EDIT] Also, you'll want to keep the sunlight off the fish tank, because once the nitrogen level starts to rise [3], the algae will go nuts in there. I learned this the hard way.

[3] http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/information/the-nitrogen-c...

Similar to this -> http://makezine.com/2012/04/12/the-most-beautiful-homemade-d...

Arriving at the same solution independently probably just adds to its merit. It's a good solution IMHO.

Well done guys on staying solvent longer than the market could stay irrational!

Watching those videos is how I always imagined what being on LSD would be like.

> My preferred voting mechanism would be a hybrid

This is the system advocated by Bruce Schneier[1], I wish it would get more traction. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me...

[1] https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2004/07/voting_secu...