Mezzacello After Dark

Mezzacello Urban Farm is a very special place to me. People rarely get to see it at night, but this week was a refreshing change of pace. We hosted a troupe of Girl Scouts to explore STEM Careers at an urban farm and they were the first group to experience Mezzacello After Dark.

The power systems at Mezzacello are mostly solar arrays and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) powered by wind and traffic. The VAWT systems even light themselves when they turn. But they add a certain charm to the farm at night.

Camps In Autumn and After Dark

It Is Better To Light a Single Candle Than To Curse The Darkness

William Lonsdale Watkinson

Traditionally we have run workshops, after school, and summer camps in the day. We had the opportunity to hold a workshop and tour of Mezzacello Urban Farm at 7:00 PM EST (14:00 UTC) and we wrapped it up by 8:30 PM EST (15:30 UTC). The night had very little impact though.

We have slowly been upgrading our systems at the farm to manage things at night. This new series of camps will allow us to extend our programming not only into the evening, but well into the winter as well. We will keep you posted on these updates and the necessary infrastructure in the coming weeks.

Better To Light a Single Candle Than To Curse The Darkness

This is one of Rick’s favorite quotes. All of the lighting and electrical systems run on either solar, wind, kinetic storage, batteries – or in a pinch, the grid. We kept adding systems to deter predators and make upkeep easier.

It never occurred to us that this light would lead to more opportunities to advance our mission. It came about quite by accident. We had 30 people there, and only I was worried about the lack of light in the front of the farm.

As we add new infrastructure, systems, and programming to our Learning Lab we will also extend the idea of new spaces, heat sources and lighting. This is a new direction for us. I am happy to embrace the night with the aid of the light.

Sustainability and Renewables on an Urban Technology Farm

I gave a presentation yesterday that I am very proud of. In this presentation, “Sustainability and Renewables on an Urban Technology Farm“, I introduced a new and novel equation for sustainability. The presentation was presented this Saturday, 22 July, 2023.

3:8
—————-
1:1.618

Of Course I will expound on this. You can view the presentation here or on the link below. I designed this presentation to encourage young people around the world to rethink their idea of sustainability and renewable resources. It was very well received, so I thought I would share it here.

What We Know About Sustainability and Proportion

I built this presentation deck as a presentation to the Global Innovation Field Trip in July 2023. I knew I wanted to discuss what I thought was the most important aspect of sustainability. Understanding the inputs and proporations that nature REQUIRES for sustainability.

We know today that we cannot trust humanity to plan for sustainability. Humans fear change and they try very hard to avoid extra work. By combining the rule of 3 inputs to 8 outputs and the transcendental number Phi.

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This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023

VAWT4All Initial Data Collection

Written by: Sudman, May 2, 2023

Hi all, I’m Sudman. I go to Metro Early College High School as a Senior. This is my first blog post: VAWT4All Initial Data Collection. This is research for my CapStone internship which I’m doing a Mezzacello Urban Farm with Jim Bruner.

I have been working on this project since January at Mezzacello Urban Farm. In that time I’ve had to do a lot of research on multiple topics that I knew almost nothing about. Like electricity, electrical engineering, Ohms Law, voltage, watts, and amps, wires, and in this case, data capture and modeling.

For a deeper dive on the VAWT4All Model see Jim Bruner’s blog post here.

Since we live in Ohio the best state with the worst weather, Practical research has been hard because Ohio’s weather sucks and it’s been really cold and wet. This is a problem for data collection because the VAWT are outdoors. We need to track real world data like COTA buses passing and we cant do that indoors at the PAST Foundation.

Real Data

Since we’ve been using the COTA website and PDF files to track bus routes, we’ve had to to import and correlate certain stop time and schedule information that isn’t present in the existing data. Like, when does the COTA bus actually pass in front of Mezzacello Urban Farm at the Hoffman Street and 20th Street bus stops? The data that COTA provides is for Fourth Street, which is 1.8 km away to the west and Ohio Avenue which is .3 km the other way to the east.

There are four missing bus stops in our data model. We made a logical guess that there is a stop every three minutes. this allowed us to create a Hoffman column in the stop data and we set that data as our control with that in mind.

Chaotic Data

The other obstacle was that we had to create a data model that would track relevant information for this project, like temperature, whether there is moisture (is it raining?) Is it windy? If so can we infer where the wind is coming from? What would this database look like?

There were other obstacles concerning modeling data. We had to create a data model and input form in Airtable that would track relevant information like wind. Is it coming from ambient wind moving from the bus stops on Broad Street at Hoffman or is the wind accelerated by the presence of a COTA buses? How do we model that?

Fitting It Together

The last piece of this puzzle is that we have to take data from four different data sources:

1. the WeatherStation
2. the COTA bus
3. the voltage from the VAWTs
4. and a data model where data as being pulled in from third-party resources.

This is really difficult to do but I think we can get it done.

Real World Effects

Regarding data and its accuracy we discovered two interesting things in the course of our research. The first is if there’s a 20 second delay from the energy that the VAWT is producing and what appears on the MPPT display. We will need to account for this delay in the data.

The second is there’s a delay in the amount of wind that comes across Broad Street and crosses the 300 m to the VAWT and how that interacts in real time. The wind is variable and it is local, but the anemometer is as close to the southern edge as we can account for.

The last is that there’s a large brick building between where the COTA buses appear and where the VAWTs are located at Mezzacello and we don’t know what impact that has yet. The building is sited towards the southwest. It has a real impact on the speed of rotation of the western VAWT from the eastbound busses that we have observed so far.

Next Steps

After we achieve a way to get all that data down we will finally be able to make a model of how much voltage is produced when a COTA bus passes by Mezzacello. I also hope that we will get this system of data collection automated. We will then able to build a model of the VAWTs to have at my Symposium.

Wind, Data, Interns, and Power In the City

This spring my Metro Early College Design intern at Mezzacello wanted to work on energy integration and automation systems. We looked at all of the systems and opted to explore the relationship of wind, data, interns, and power in the city. Sudman (my intern) came up with a plan and a name, #VAWT4All.

We knew we were going to need more than just power – which we get plenty of – we wanted data for Sudman’s capstone project. We chose the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) model we wanted to test and then built them at the southern edge of the property that faces busy Broad Street.

Data Mapping

At first, Sudman was daunted by how we were going to collate all of these data streams:

• Ambient Weather
• Traffic Patterns
• COTA Bus Schedules
• Voltages
• Battery Loads
• Tracking and Modeling Data

I am pleased to report that so far, He is doing a good job. First we needed to consider how we would mount the VAWT to the sheds at the south face of Mezzacello. We had to price conscious as we did not have grant money to pay for traditional mounting and monitoring solutions.

Menards, Airtable, COTA, Arduino, and Amazon To The Rescue

Sudman and I determined that if we made subtle modifications to 1.5″ steel pipe and fittings we could mount the VAWTs securely to the shed and still clear the roof drip ledge. The pipe is actually two 60″ sections secured to the shed with standard tees and flanges, and the top riser section is a 24″ section with a modified flange for the VAWT base.

The use of this off-the-shelf system saved us a small fortune and made installation a snap! Next we needed a system to monitor local weather conditions that could be isolated from the larger regional area. We went with a La Crosse WiFi-enabled weather system with an anemometer, precipitation sensor and temp and humidity sensors. This would allow Sudman to determine how weather conditions affected the system.

To collect data of the surrounding area and traffic conditions we went with an Amazon Blink system to provide video and snapshot data of traffic conditions at the time of measurement. Then we used Airtable to create a quick and dirty database for collected data and a web-enabled form to collect the data remotely. Lastly, Sudman donloaded the #10 COTA Bus schedule as a CSV and imported that into Airtable as a reference table for the presence of busses and impacts on energy production.

One of the immediate challenges in tracking the reaction between COTA Busses and their impact on the VAWTs was timing efficiency. COTA only publishes two of the eight stops on East and West Broad Street, 4th Street and Ohio Avenue. Sudman had to extrapolate the actual timing of the stops at Hoffman and Ohio, the two stops closest to Mezzacello.

Lastly, we built an Arduino-based module that would allow Sudman to collect voltage and battery performance data at a given time. Now he is graphing this data to determine if the Busses have any real impact on energy generation to an undisturbed space between the VAWT installation and the traffic patterns.

It is anecdotal at this point, as Sudman is tracking data until May 20th when his capstone research is due. I will be sure to follow up here with his presentation and data. I can tell you he was very excited while we were working on the install, feeling the wind from passing busses and the spinning VAWT as well as what the voltmeter was telling us.

The 3D Printing Pivot We Missed

Lastly, part of Sudman and my plan for this project was an entirely 3D printed version of the VAWT model for testing. Unfortunately it has been next to impossible to find a 300+ mm 3D printer capable of printing the complex snap-together assembly Sudman has designed. It is a real-world lesson in the limits of engaged research – sometimes you can’t hit all your targets.

To his credit, his alternative solution is pretty creative and totally Science Fair worthy. We have decided to replace the “flower turbines” (seen above) on the bioreactor here at Mezzacello with chipboard and plastic rod prototypes of the VAWT turbines to conduct tests on and make his vision of wind power anywhere for anyone a closer reality.

My Podcast with The Innovation World Young Collaborators

On Friday night I took part for the first time in My Podcast with The Innovation World Young Collaborators. Siddharth is a natural (9 year old podcaster, inventor, and global youth activist. It was really humbling and fun!

Initially this conversation with Siddharth was to cover my #ProjectMartian work here at Mezzacello. Siddharth wanted to call it Let’s Start a Farm on Mars. It quickly became obvious that Siddharth and the the Innovation World Young Collaborators was also very interested in my UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals work.

Part one is about Mezzacello and the UN 17 SDG work. Part two is about Project Martian, my fascination with Mars, inventions and robotics. It also covers the Biodome, Bioreactor, and the VAWT energy production systems at Mezzacello.

I hope you’ll join us on Siddharth’s and my first podacst together. Each month another member of the Innovation World Young Collaborators panel will host another adult innovator they are curious to know more about. This was a lot of fun. I am sure you will enjoy it too!

BioDome 2 Power Systems Integration

Progress on the Biodome 2.0 is progressing. I have the superstructure done and the airlock/vestibule prepared. Now we need to start developing the BioDome 2 Power Systems Integration.

This semester I have a high school intern named Sudman who is helping me to assemble the modular power structures for the biodome 2.0. We are 3D printing the new VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine) based on a design we found from Christopher’s Factory.

Next Steps

Once we gat the dome painted and covered, we will begin integrating the wind turbine, homemade solar array and battery and inverter kit. Then we will begin creating the water evaporators and water recovery systems. We are shooting for a late April deadline for this.

Sudman is only available a few hours a week because of High School. I am trying to integrate him as much as possible on this build as it is part of his capstone research. So taking our time on this.

BioRenewables Lesson Plans

Welcome to the Mezzacello 2023 BioRenewables Lesson Plans page. Here you will find the suggested lessons, activities, design challenges, plans and resources for running the BioEngineering summer camp at Mezzacello. If you would like to sort through other lessons, simply click here.

Day One:

Introduction to Mezzacello and BioRenewables

1. LESSON: Farm Systems – Layout and Systems of the farm and safety protocols
2. ACTIVITY: Nature, Engineering, and Problem Solving
3. Design Challenge: Duct Tape Trivia
4. Design Challenge: Build a Gate

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1. LESSON: Team Building – Types of Engineers
2. ACTIVITY: Leadership Roulette
3. Design Challenge: Team Identity
4. Design Challenge: STEM Identity
5. Video: How Power is created

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1. LESSON: Layers of Reality – A fun way to introduce the STEM in #UrbanAgTech by creating a model for the way the world works through art and lecture.
2. ACTIVITY: Create a Nested Doll Set
3. Design Challenge: Build an Atom

Day Two

Webs of Life and Pressure

1. LESSON: Webs of Life – a quick review of where in our world we interact with Atoms and why.
2. ACTIVITY: Three Systems to Understand Mezzacello

   • Engineering Systems

   • Biological Systems
   • Systems Integration

3. Design Challenge: Water and Air Pressure
4. Design Challenge: Phases of Matter

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1. LESSON: Under Pressure – How pressure is everywhere and seemingly nowhere and why
2. ACTIVITY: Building a Water Evaporation System in the Biodome
3. Design Challenge: Build a Chicken Feeder and Waterer

Day Three:

Biomimicry and Pattern, Process, and Structure

1. LESSON: The Circle of Life – a crash course into Applied STEM and Math integration in Ag and in STEM.
2. ACTIVITY: Break a complex problem into simple machines – explore the six simple machines at Mezzacello.
3. Design Challenge: Explore all aspects of pressure (physical, electrical, emotional, social)
4. Design Challenge: Identify a Reframe of a Simple Problem

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1. LESSON: As Above; So Below – a reminder that life is sophisticated and deeper than we want to acknowledge, but is essentially Yin and Yang with a boundary layer.
2. ACTIVITY: Fear, Anxiety, Failure, and Confidence – emotional pressure
3. Design Challenge: Air, Water, Earth, Fire– the way energy propagates across our experience

Day Four

Careers and Why Engineering Matters on a Farm

1. LESSON: Career Crossover – Allows students to reflect on what they have observed and how it impacts their curiosity and their future.
2. ACTIVITY: Being an Engineer: Three problems to solve
3. Design Challenge: Team Algorithm
4. Design Challenge: Interview for Your Future Job

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1. LESSON: Public Speaking 101
2. ACTIVITY: Discuss and whiteboard with your team what your video will be
3. Design Challenge: Assign Random Roles
4. Design Challenge: Create a Bio dome

Day Five

Presentation Day

• Finish Your Product Development
• Prep for Presentation
• Present your Final Presentation

Mezzacello in Winter – Animals, Power, and Water

Brrrrrr! It is very cold today. so I took the opportunity to highlight Mezzacello in Winter – Animals, Power, and Water.

I am very pleased to report that things are humming along nicely. I am wasting energy with the AC inverters (making everything DC is going to take another season) But the solar arrays and Wind Turbines – and the battery banks – are doing their Job!

Water in Winter

It is such an exciting proposition to have access to water all year long. It uses a lot of power to keep the passive AC heating elements going when the sensors detect a freezing temperature, but they are working. I wasted so much time hauling water out to the coops to keep water liquid.

It is a luxury to be sure. But I do not yet know how long the battery arrays will hold up. Stay tuned as we are in for a few weeks of sub zero days here in Ohio.

Installing a New Solar Array in Photos

This was a fun project. I managed to build and install this entire array on my own. I will share more details tomorrow.

Recycling Boxed Wine Bags

One of the innovations I developed over the summer with the #UrbanAgTech summer camps was recycling boxed wine bags. It’s super easy to do once you understand how they work. The trick is to be prepared.

Double Wall Design

I honestly never paid much attention to wine bags from boxed wine. They are ingenious in their design though. The have two plastic walls, a smooth inner bag, and a rougher, more durable outer bag. The bags are fused at the bottom and top and at the spigot dispenser.

I discovered their usefulness quite by accident. My renewables camps were exploring synthesizing multiple types of fertilizer and I needed a way to contain the exact amount of fertilizer (which was usually in liquid form). Traditionally I use a vacuum sealer system, but with liquid that was impossible.

I cut the top of the wine bag off. This is when I discovered the double bag structure. And I thoroughly rinsed it out.

Vacuum Sealer 101

In future, I will only cut a small slit in the top as I think the smaller diameter hole will make the bag more stable while refilling. This will also allow me to refill the bags with a funnel. It’s easier to fill a funnel with liquid fertilizer.

Once you have the fertilizer in the bag, all you have to do is seal it. When you balance the liter of fertilizer in the bag you can insert the top of the bag in the vacuum sealer. You must not apply vacuum, though.

The vacuum sealer devices all have heat seal features (I prefer this brand). Balance the bag with the liquid and seal the top of the bag. The beauty of this is that each bag can be used multiple times.

Trust me. You do not want to spill Eden’s Ghost or Composite Minerals everywhere. They smell like death – even though they are an amazing fertilizer.

Friends In Need

So the obvious weakness in this strategy is that I cannot possibly drink enough boxed wine! That is where my friends and community come in. My dear friend Sabra brought me THREE Bags!

I of course shared three bags with her. The other cool aspect of this strategy is that it allows me to share my bio-products with my friends and neighbors. I also get real-time feedback on their efficacy.

So now I wait for my friends to test my fertilizers and give me feedback. So far, I have five neighbors and gardens testing my fertilizers. I will keep you posted!