< Previous Section (Technical Context)
The main economic structure of LaFarm is composed of three main parts. The first source of economic resources comes from the college to pay the students and other employees who work on the farm. The second source of economic resources comes from the student government to purchase seeds. Although both of these sources are critical to the success of LaFarm, about ⅔ of total funding comes from sales revenues. However, none of this funding is allocated for purchasing new infrastructure or adding artistic improvements to the property. That being said, the funding for the installation of a new greenhouse structure on the property of LaFarm is expected to come from the college itself and other relevant donors. According to our analysis, the installation of the new greenhouse structure is expected to cost anywhere between $25,911 and $94,000. Due to the fact that the greenhouse proposal is still being finalized and the funding is still being obtained, our project team decided that the best way to bring our plan into fruition would be attaching it to the current greenhouse pitch. Adding the implementation of the functional art pieces to the greenhouse proposal would increase the range of the total cost of the project to be between $31,690.24 and $99,790.24, but our project team believes that the proposal of the art may provide additional motivation for the administration to construct the greenhouse more quickly due to the added benefits.
Greenhouse Structure and Construction:
According to Rimol’s website, the price for the 30 x 48 Nor’Easter greenhouse starts at $4,911.00 but additional upgrades can bring the price up to $15,979.00 (“Nor’Easter”, n.d.). The price of the 30 x 48 Matterhorn greenhouse was not available online, but Sustainability Director Delicia Nahman said that the current quote for the Matterhorn design is $68,000. Funding for construction of the greenhouse will also have to be allocated and that is estimated to be about $5,000-$10,000 according to a previous engineering studies capstone project (Beyer, 2015).According to Rimol’s website, the price for the 30 x 48 Nor’Easter greenhouse starts at $4,911.00 but additional upgrades can bring the price up to $15,979.00 (“Nor’Easter”, n.d.). The price of the 30 x 48 Matterhorn greenhouse was not available online, but Sustainability Director Delicia Nahman said that the current quote for the Matterhorn design is $68,000. Funding for construction of the greenhouse will also have to be allocated and that is estimated to be about $5,000-$10,000 according to a previous engineering studies capstone project (Beyer et al., 2015).
Electrical:
Ms. Nahman estimated that $16,000 would need to be allocated to bring electricity to the greenhouse. While a further analysis still needs to be completed in order to determine the amount of energy each structure would need to operate under the conditions LaFarm needs, the energy produced by the dye-sensitized solar cells would be able to offset some of the year costs and could potentially also lower the price of the electrical infrastructure. The U.S. Energy information reports that the average electricity rate in Easton, PA was around 0.14 per kWh in August 2021 while the national average for commercial-scale solar has dropped to $0.11 per kWh and is only expected to decrease in the future according to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (“SunShot 30”, n.d. and “PA Energy Ratings”, n.d.) As stated in the technical analysis of this project, dye-sensitized solar cells can “achieve more than 11% energy conversion allied to good performance under any atmospheric condition and low irradiance”, and at least 713.6 kWh would be produced per year through these panels at LaFarm (Gonçalves et al., 2008). While our project team tried to get an estimate on how much the installation of the solar cells would cost, many companies are currently in the process of receiving a license to install these panels (Gonçalves, 2008). Another analysis would need to be completed in the future to determine how much the installation of the solar cells would cost. However, it is clear that by implementing dye-sensitized solar cells into the infrastructure, LaFarm would be able to save and use monetary resources for other projects and needs.
Materials:
Currently, the average price for dye-sensitized solar cells roughly cost around $17.40 per m2 (Kalowekamo and Baker, 2009). Being as roughly 267.6 m2 of dye-sensitized solar cells would be needed to cover both sides of the roof, the total cost of the dye-sensitized solar cells is looking to cost around $4,656.24.
Since the upside down planters will be made from recycled materials, the majority of the cost for this portion of the project will be used to purchase the hardware to hang the planters from the trusses of the greenhouse and obtain the materials used to execute the artistic design onto it. A 3/8 inch by 3-1/2 inch stainless steel spring link that can support a working load of 350 pounds can be purchased for roughly $11.00 (“3/8 in. x 3-1/2 in. Stainless Steel Spring Link”, n.d.). Since there are 20 planters, 20 of these spring links would be needed bringing the total cost up to $220.00. A 3/16 inch by 100-foot grade 30 zinc plated steel proof coil chain can also be purchased for $158.00 from Home Depot and can be cut to the desired length of five feet by machinery in the engineering department (“3/16 in. x 100 ft. Grade 30 Zinc Plated Steel Proof Coil Chain”, n.d.) Furthermore, a 10.9 oz. can of water-based acrylic spray paint costs around $9.00 (“Evolution Acrylic 10.9 oz. Gloss Anthracite Grey, Water Based Spray”, n.d.). A five-gallon jug is approximately 1 square foot of space and one can cover up to 22 square feet, so the amount of paint needed would be determined by how many colors are needed for the design (“The Battle of the Jugs!”, 2017 and “Evolution Acrylic 10.9 oz. Gloss Anthracite Grey, Water Based Spray”, n.d.). The Evolution acrylic gloss spray paint comes in nine different colors and if the school was to purchase all of them it would cost $81.00 (Evolution Acrylic 10.9 oz. Gloss Anthracite Grey, Water Based Spray”, n.d.). In total, the upside down planters would cost around $459.00.
For the materials for the mural, we are using Krylon Stained glass paint. The paint is available in 7 different colors. One can cover 31 ft2, and the total surface area to be covered is around 1080 ft2. Accounting for the different colors needed, as well as layering the colors, 75 cans is the estimate for the number of cans needed. The cost of one can is around $9 (varies by retailer), making the total cost for mural materials $675.