  Theoretical framework for power dissipation in low temperature plasmas in
corona equilibrium is developed. The framework is based on fundamental
conservation laws and reaction cross sections and is only weakly sensitive to
plasma parameters, e.g. electron temperature and density. The theory is applied
to low temperature atomic and molecular hydrogen laboratory plasmas for which
the plasma heating power dissipation to photon emission, ionization and
chemical potential is calculated. The calculated photon emission is compared to
recent experimental results.
