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BCP Electronics

  basic principles

The temperature in a porous block is measured before and after a small heat pulse is applied to it. The amount of heat flow from the pulse-heated point is mostly proportional to the amount of water contained within the porous material. That means a wet material will heat up slower than a dry one. This rise in temperature (or the cooling) is measured with an accurate thermister in the sensor tip and calibrated to the soil water content of the medium.
  advantages

They are similar to gypsum block sensors except they measure thermal conductivity rather than electrical conductivity and hence the conductivity of the water is not an inherent problem.
  disadvantages

They have a fairly large power requirement if measurements are taken too frequently.
  general

BCP Electronics of Clovis, CA make one of these soil moisture/temperature sensor that are factory-calibrated to soil matric potential (bars).. Suppliers listing

  literature

Kasubuchi, T. Hasegawa, S. Measurement of Spatial Average of field soil water content by the long heat probe method. Soil science and plant nutrition. DEC 01 1994 v 40 n 4 Page:565 SICI Code: 0038-0768(19941201)40:4L.565:MSAF;1-
  details

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