I have been using a commercial formula from the Co-Op. it is for Hydro ( water soluble, w/micro elements). You have to add to it (Cal Nit, Epson salt and FE) at different weighs for different plants. Disadvantage (for smaller growers) is that it only comes in 25lb bags, I have a small greenhouse and a regular garden that I use it on, so 25 lbs is not a problem with me. Some commercial hydro dealers sell smaller quantities that you can buy. Don't forget you need an Ph, ppm and Ec meter. Got to have one of those. If you are using well water have it tested. I have made most of all my hydro plant equipment (in the process of making a 2.5x4' floating raft system out of 2x6's and plywood and an old kiddie pool)

VNC, Virtual Network Computing Windows/MSN messenger have remote desktop feature, Very nice, gives you remote control of a desktop .. but you have to accept the connection. Another words you have to use the desktop keyboard to initiate or accept the connection. With one of the VNC programs you just remotely connect with login/password and can remotely do things like rebooting/defrag/program installs, etc from your laptop without ever getting off your couch. Hdd ,,, thought everybody knew that one.. short for Hard Drive. If you map the full desktop hard drive(s) to your laptop you will have access to all programs and files it contains on your laptop just like another drive. Some of the configurations won't work unless you initially install the program on both desktop and laptop to build the registery keys but basic functionallity will work on most programs.

You have a coupe options: The max allowable distance for Ethernet (over Cat5/6 copper is 100m (about 330') Fiber can run MUCH longer distances, depending on the specific type and speed. You could run coax that far, on your own, but you would have to worry about signal loss and noise. They can be run arielly or burried. If it was me, I would build a powered hut just off the road and run fiber. (If I could not mains power it, I would look in to solar cells and batteres with the appropriate voltages. (All cable modems and media converts that I have seen are DC devices. No need to run DC->AC->DC, it is just a waste of enegy.) If you want to know more and/or have specific questions, let me know.

Peter- Thanks for the link to the Intelliflo technical discussion. Obviously this was an Intelliflo only discussion and only addressed low speed efficiency. Variable speed pumps with BPM motors will always use less power than a PSC motor at low speed. There is no argument here. However, variable speed at higher speeds suffers from large power consumption due to two primary power robbers 1) high current inversion of AC to DC power in the VFD, which is very inefficient and produces a lot of waste heat as a result 2) Compromised impeller design because the impeller can not operate at peak efficiency for a large gpm range so the engineers have to make a choice where they want to optimize the impeller and at the same time a choice at where the impeller will not be very efficient. In the case of Intelliflo, from their published power, TDH and gpm curves, they have optimized for low speed operation and rightly so, but this choice also causes the higher speed efficiency to be miserable. Also of note, while I agree with your warning of using FLA to estimate power consumption, I would also add that the Intelliflo curve is true power consumption in watts and not FLA. Using FLA to calculate 2 speed pump power is worst case and, to your point, will only be better in the real world which makes the 2 speed even more favorable over variable speed. Just wanted to offer a balanced view here. Variable speed has its own merits, mainly low speed efficiency and ability to tune flow to plumbing resistance for optimum performance. But, to suggest using a variable speed pump for multi-tasking, which requires higher speeds, is not doing the energy conscious homeowner any good. In the case of pools with multiple water features or in-floor cleaners which require higher flows, multiple 1 speed or 2 speed pumps that are tuned for the higher flows will always save energy over a variable speed that is trying to inefficiently cover a large operating range. jj- In your case with a floor cleaning system...the floor cleaner will have to run for about 2 hours a day to get full rotation of the heads and full cleaning. For other hours of the day, the pump can ran at low speed allowing the pump to operate easier against lower resistance providing turnover and filtering for your pool. A variable speed or a 2 speed will both provide energy efficient operation for your cleaning and filtering needs. Only you can make the decision if you want to spend the extra money for the variable speed. To help you justify the extra cost for variable speed over 2 speed, use 200 watts per hour savings over 2 speed at low speed and 1,000 watts per hour cost over 2 speed at high speed. Knowing how long you will run the pump at high and low speed will allow you to calculate how much money is saved per day with variable speed and 2 speed, helping to make your decision. Hope this helps!