[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: Heating Coils
> Erdoz1 <erdoz1 at wt_net> wrote:
> >Could a modified under gravel filtration plates serve the same function
> > >as the under gravel heating coil systems?
<snip>
> > >... This would result in a very small
> > >reverse flow through the substrate, duplicating (what I understand to
> be)
> > >the primary benefit of heating coils - providing enrichment to the
> > >root system and avoiding totally anaerobic conditions by creating a
> very
> > >small small circulation pattern from the water column through the root
> > >system.
>
> George Booth <booth at lvld_agilent.com> responded:
> > In theory, such a setup should provide almost all the supposed benefits
> of
> > heating coils - minus the heat, of course. <snip, flow rate issues>
>
The electric heating coil issue seems to come up every so often,
and there is verbose discussion in the archives on alternatives to
coils in the substrate and ways to attempt simulation of
environmental effects from coil use. The argument against coils
tends to be their cost, which opens up hope for coil alternatives.
Working on my Ham (amateur radio) license, there appear
to be very common stories from various station operators
that electric fields promote plant growth. Home-made radio
stations 40 feet high will broadcast, and ivy grows up it
fine. If you stop using the station, the ivy dies (we are in an
arid climate here.) Start broadcasting again, and the ivy starts
growing again (of course, we are talking about active/inactive
periods of months and years, not hours. ;-))
I can rationalize this to the point where an AC electric field
does provide a higher environmental potential energy, making
photosynthesis a lower-cost reaction (at the lowest level, we
are still talking about individual photons hitting individual
fluorochromes to increase the energy potential for molecular
growth, leading to biomass accumulation.) In short, if
photosynthetic biomass accumulation is energy fixing (and it is),
would not the presence of an electric field assist in process
reaction (remember the electric field modulation... that's got
to be good for initiating inertial momentum for the reaction, right?)
Just a thought. If this is true and significant, than we have
circulation, heat, and electric field benefits from coils and
the last of which cannot be easily simulated without actually
going to something you plug into the wall. (Darn... I'm still too
cheap to buy those things.)
--charley
charleyb at cytomation_com