posted 13 years ago
Good reply Len...
Although I never got involved in the design far enough to do those calculations, I had some idea of those factors. If the greenhouse was large enough, and had enough floatation, etc. etc. etc. it would not be too affected by the weight of a person or a loaded wheel barrow on one side. I also did figure the grounding of one side. I also considered putting something like inexpensive balls of some sort to help with that and to help in other ways.
The partial design I was doing in my head (I'm one of those people who can do 3D mechanical CADD in my head) would have the size of the "pond" and the size of the greenhouse very close, which would among other things cut down on evaporation. Keeping water in the pond was not enough of a problem or consideration to worry about unless it was to actually be fully designed and built.
You are right about plants following or leaning toward the sun, and that would be a consideration, but again, it was not a full design, just a passing idea. I also considered something that might continuously rotate, giving all plants in a larger area more light. I considered using the breeze/wind, with several small propellers or low volume mini water jets under it to keep it going, with some regulatory mechanism or control to limit it or keep it moving at a consistent "speed", as well as some way to lock it down if there were high winds or other outside force that might affect it adversely.
Power would be solar panels, so no problems with running wires to it.
Water could be taken up from the pond to water the plants, and replenished from whatever reserve or supply was to be used, so no water lines needed to be attached to the greenhouse either, and the pond water would remain fresh instead of possibly stagnating.
Ideally, as I am into Aquaponics, there would likely be fish in the pond so that the water could also provide fertilizer for the plants, and of course, there would be several considerations for the well being of the fish incorporated into the design.
Done right, I'm sure it would work great, but I think it would wind-up being one of those projects that is more about "Wow! that's cool!" then about just being practical and efficient, which is the main reason I did not spend a lot of time on the idea.
As I said, just an idea I toyed with almost momentarily, not fully designed or anything.
- But now that you have added to this, I will probably toy with the idea some more if I get bored or something...