I guess we should better discuss this on my veranda, with a cup of Earl Grey or a beverage of your choice at some rainy monsoon day. But yep, I am here since a while and I have no intention to leave soon ;-) I truly live at a remote place, where C.I.A agents use to open various "churches" with names like "Whiter shade of pale" - actually as a cover front for there observer jobs near the Burmese border LOL! And yet they talk too much when they're completely wasted. But that doesn't mean that I have no insight in what happens at key places around the world. Btw: I've only been once in the U.S. If I remember well, it was in late 1979 or 80 at Atlanta airport for 4 hours in transit to Mexico City, on the way to Guatemala. I've never returned for "a reason" and If id' bluntly say what I think of the american way of life, dream - and all the rest of it, I'd probably not be able to fight all of you back anymore. If it helps, I've got a "news ticker" not even an hour ago, you know what it says? " Greed and pyramid schemes on the rise in Thailand!" LOL You must have noticed that I am not a native speaker in English language and that my cultural, educational and other backgrounds are indeed diametrically different ;-) Nevertheless, - wherever you look, wherever you go, the proportion and the kind of pollution, waste, and the whole enchilada that goes with it doesn't change that much. Do you think that in S.E.A there is widely accepted ecological thinking or anything even remotely related. Nope my friend, the conditions here are to be compared with the state of the art of the US in the 70ies. Most importantly the real reason (as mentioned earlier) ignorance, irresponsibility and greed are everywhere and always the same. Hence I still believe that there are too many trees to mention to bark at first, respectively before it's the turn of hydroponics. Truth to be told, though: I am actually about to lunch a whole product line for hydroponics and in fact I am not at all neutral with this topic. ;-) In case anyone is trying to opportunistically turn this against me now, it would be the very last "personal" information I'd ever share here again. If you're interested on the other hand, catch me as long as you can. As I will be very busy, very soon....

I like the Floramato so far. My plants are looking great and have beautiful tomatoes on them. I am now using 5 gallon buckets in large net cups with coco coir chunk on a drip system. Not constant drip. It cycles for 15 minutes every hour and it's more of a small stream than a drip. My tomatoes are Yellow Pear and Brandywine. I also have eggplant and peppers on a similar system. PBP is great for peppers, but not worth it. I'm finding the dry nutrients to be great and they are literally 1/4 the price. Of course, I am fully intending to mix my own soon thanks to some direction from one of the members here. I'm away from home for the week, but will try to post pictures on here when I return so you have a better idea of what I am saying. I warn you, my systems are not built for aesthetics. . .

David_cary ~~ as dlm2000 points out, there is NO pump used on the convection-style recirculating system. You can probably get a better explanation by googling, but basically what happens is that all the hot water is piped consecutively (and yes, pipes must be insulated, but they shoud be anyhow), but instead of the pipe dead-ending at the last faucet, the pipe returns to the hot water heater. Convection causes a slow journey through the pipes, hot water goes up and cooler cometh down, which results in hot water always being at the tap. As with any other issue involving moving heat, insulation of the transmitting unit (whether water pipe or air duct) is required for the best energy efficiency. I have no doubt that there is a slight increase in the overall cost of heating hot water, but it should be a *very* slight increase since the water within well-insulted pipes does not drop a great deal of temperature ~~ and if one is truly concerned about energy efficiency, there would be a far better cost return by solar pre-heating the originating water before it goes into the water heater.

I had a recirculation pump with a dedicated return line and a timer but it had two problems: 1) Most of the time the pump is running, it is not needed 2) when Hot water is needed, the pump is often not running. I solved the problem with a unique "on-demand" control that turns on the pump when the hot water anywhere in the house is turned on. You can see a diagram of the set-up at: http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr167/PRYGAARD/RecirculationControl.png[/IMG] 1) On the cold water IN on the Hot Water tank, a flow switch is installed that turns on when it detects flow. (Note: This can *not* be anywhere in the circulation loop) A Delay-Off timer turns the pump on immediately when the Flow Switch turns on, but does not turn off the pump for a while after the flow switch is turned off. (The delay time needs to be adjusted for the characteristics of the particular installation. Typical times range from 30-90 seconds) 3) An aquastat is used to turn off the pump when the farthest faucet in the loop reaches temp. When the hot water is turned on, the pump comes on and hot water arrives very quickly (but not instantly). The innovation is this: Turn the hot water on for a second and then turn it back off...and the pump keeps going for a while. Then just wait for a little bit and turn the Hot water back on...it is hot and ready to use. After the water is turned off, the pump will run for the delay time and then stops till the next time there is demand. Flow Switch: Gems 26605 (I got it cheap on ebay). (http://www.gemssensors.com/ApplicationSearchResults.asp?nQuestionID=36 ) Others are available, but be sure to get one that has a fairly low trip point on the flow. (.75  1 GPM) Delay off Timer: MX046 timer kit. (15 second to 6 min delay) (http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=466) It is inexpensive but you must build it into a case. There are other delay-off timers and relays available but this seems to be the cheapest option. Aquastat: Grundfos ½" Clip on.