Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations..................................................................................
The team successfully created a greenhouse design to enable efficient year round operation. This design
provides a solid starting point for prospective aquaponic greenhouse builders, even if their specific
requirements are different from that of Worcester Roots. Although ultimately our design was not
constructed due to a generous donation of an existing greenhouse, the design provides a solid
foundation for future constructions, and informs any possible modifications Worcester Roots may want
to make to the donated greenhouse.
The team also created a design for a modular, easily replicable aquaponic growing system. The design
was successfully built as a prototype of the system which includes a growing bed, a stand for the
growing bed and a fish tank. We also synthesized a month by month working schedule which highlighted
key growing seasons for plants and suggested the optimal year round operation considering the climate.
Below there are a few recommendations the team made for future improvements and alterations in the
greenhouse.
5.1 Recommendations For Further Investigation
5.1.1 Ventilation
The Aquaponic Greenhouse design does not feature an automated ventilation system. The level of
humidity inside the greenhouse will affect the both the biological and non-biological entities in the
greenhouse. Our research into ventilation systems and effects of temperature and humidity on
greenhouse components showed that the high levels of relative humidity will damage the wooden
structure as well as young seedlings. In addition to the two internal fans in the design we strongly advise
anyone interested in using our design as a template for building his own greenhouse to conduct further
investigation into the integration of an automated ventilation. The automated ventilation process will
allow the greenhouse to maintain a constant internal humidity and temperature which will facilitate
optimum yield of the plants and fish while preserving the existing structure.
5.1.2 Interior Layout...................................................................................................................
The interior layout features three tanks of similar dimensions. However the team learnt through
research that there are some limitations to the size available for the building for the greenhouse. It was
found that the greenhouse cannot be build more than 4 feet close to the property line, as a result, the
size of the greenhouse should be decreased. We recommend that the design be changed from 33 ft. in
length to 27ft so as to meet the building codes for the state of MA. The external size reduction would
also affect the interior layout. Alternatively the design could also be altered by replacing the 8' by 4'
beds with four beds with dimensions of 4’ by 2’. The four beds could be vertically stacked, this would
give the same amount of growing area while consuming less interior space. The results of out early
prototypes cause to strongly recommend that the beds be reduced in size to reduce the amount of
strain experienced by each bed as there will be less water and therefore the bed will have to support
less weight. We advise future groups to reduce the dimensions of the growing beds so that they can fit
into the new area available inside the greenhouse.
5.1.3 Structure
Because of regulations, the building will have to be reduced and the alternative for the internal size
reduction is to design vertical beds. Instead of building an 8’ by 4’ you could design the four beds of 4’ by