Plant husbandry – Water culture – apparatus or method – Nutrient recirculation system
Patent
1996-06-20
1998-06-30
Carone, Michael J.
Plant husbandry
Water culture, apparatus or method
Nutrient recirculation system
47 59, A01G 3100
Patent
active
057716340
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to hydroponic cultivation, and relates especially to the control of the various electrical parameters used in hydroponic installations,
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Hydroponic cultivation of the kind to which the invention relates is carried out in an indoor Installation, under controlled conditions of temperature, humidity, and so on. The growing plants are set in nutrient-controlled water, and their growth is promoted by electric lights.
Hydroponic cultivation has been considered hitherto to be somewhat unsuitable for the amateur operator. It is not common to find an installation in, for example, a domestic house. However, the reason for this low acceptability of in-home hydroponic installations is not cost, particularly; rather, the problem is perceived to lie more with the amount of attention required of the amateur operator, and with the level of skill and judgement needed.
Thus, the problem is perceived to be that the amateur will have difficulty in co-ordinating the thermostats, the light-on-light-off cycle, the carbon dioxide monitor, the nutrient acidity sensor, and all the rest, on a day-by-day basis.
It is now recognised that amateur operators can perfectly easily acquire the skills needed to operate an in-home hydroponic facility, provided the controls of the facility are directed, not by constant manual attention from the operator, but to a large extent by sensors, a computer, and programmed operational sequences.
The invention lies in a control apparatus which is highly suitable for household or domestic hydroponic installations. The apparatus of the invention is suitable for in-home installations, not only on operational grounds, but also on the grounds of cost, and on the grounds of the level of complexity needed for the number of parameters of operation found in a typical small hydroponic system. Of course, a conventional computer (ie a typical computer of the kind that has eg 1 Mb of RAM, display screen, keyboard, etc) could be programmed to operate the hydroponic facility. However, that would not be desirable: the computer would have to be dedicated to that use, which would be far too expensive. Besides, the amateur may not be familiar with computer programming and operation.
In a commercial hydroponic installation, with many growing rooms, with many employees who are paid to take care of the mundane chores, the economics are different, and it is worthwhile to dedicate even expensive equipment for controlling the process. Thus, sophisticated computerised control systems are commonly to be found in conventional commercial hydroponic installations.
The invention is aimed at a system which is inexpensive enough that it can be dedicated for use in an in-home hydroponic facility, and which is easy to operate even by a person with no knowledge of computer programming or operation.
Of course, small, domestic hydroponic installations do exist at present. However, installations of the present designs are invariably controlled to a huge degree not by computers and automatic programs but by the constant personal attention of the human operator. It is this large amount of skilled attention required that is perceived as the barrier to in-home hydroponic installations becoming more widespread.
The lights, pumps, control components, etc, of the hydroponic installation are all electrical. The conventional practice is to provide the usual several instruments or sensors, eg pH meter, max-min thermometer, and the rest: the operator uses his knowledge and skilled judgement to adjust the light cycle, the humidity, the CO2 content, etc. In practice, the operator checks the readings and settings, then leaves the installation for a while; then he keeps coming back, adjusting the controls, and again repeating the mundane tasks.
It is recognised that what is required is an all-in-one controller device, with a timer and a computer, to which the operator can plug-in all the sensor inputs, and plug-in all the powered outputs, whereby he can leave the system, once set, to operate automaticall
REFERENCES:
patent: 3807088 (1974-04-01), Jones
patent: 4015366 (1977-04-01), Hall
patent: 5184420 (1993-02-01), Papadopoulos
patent: 5212906 (1993-05-01), Okuno
Carone Michael J.
Pezzuto Robert
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