Anyone know where to find the average water usage in gallons per hr for a lawn sprinkler? I tried google, no luck.

4/27/2006 11:15:39 AM

I'd guess 1-3 gpm, but each one is different. If you really must know, put that sonambitch in a bucket and look at your watch.

[Edited on April 27, 2006 at 11:20 AM. Reason : it's limited by the hose at probably 10gpm]

4/27/2006 11:18:19 AM

exactly what kind of sprinkler is it, what is your water pressure, and what size hose or pipe and how long is it?


pressure radius gpm
10 psi 24 2.2
15 psi 29 2.7
20 psi 33 3.2
25 psi 36 35
30 psi 38 3.9
35 psi 39 4.2
40 psi 40 4.5
45 psi 41 4.7
50 psi - -

here is the general rule of thumb chart for impact sprinklers, for plastic ones anyway, brass will be slightly higher usage

[Edited on April 27, 2006 at 11:28 AM. Reason : ]

4/27/2006 11:19:02 AM

standard cheap oscillating sprinkler.

the kind that rolls back and forth, not the chk chk chck kckcckckckkck sprinklers.

[Edited on April 27, 2006 at 11:35 AM. Reason : ..]

4/27/2006 11:34:52 AM

I went to a pretty cool presentation on using rain barrells for lawn and garden irrigation and car washing. Something to at least look into (depending on your yard size). Especially when theres a summer drought and the city places restrictions on water use.

4/27/2006 11:37:55 AM

yeah, there is a lot of variation in those, just put it in a 5 gal bucket and time how long it takes to fill up. (secs/60)/5= gpm

4/27/2006 12:04:28 PM

I like how you spelled out the sprinkler action. You deserve a cookie.

4/27/2006 12:05:53 PM

Somehow I don't think Houston's question has anything to do with actually watering your lawn.

I'd be willing to bet it's a comparison of water used when watering the lawn (allowed two days per week under Stage II mandatory conservation measures) and washing your own car (not permitted under Stage II conservation measures).

I'm kind of interested in knowing why AREN'T we allowed to make a choice between watering the lawn and washing the car? Both end up as groundwater.

4/27/2006 12:54:14 PM

Last week I watered my lawn by bouncing the water off my car. It was actually on the correct day of the week, although that was just coincidental.

Fuck a drought, I drive on construction sites every day and couldn't see a damn thing out my windshield.

^To answer your question, residential contractors/landscapers/lawn owners and car wash owners all have significant political clout. People who wash their own cars do not.

[Edited on April 27, 2006 at 1:36 PM. Reason : .]

4/27/2006 1:33:44 PM

nah, im contemplating a rain barrel system, trying to figure out if its feasible, and if i need a pump.

4/27/2006 3:04:43 PM

how big is the yard.. I've lots of experiance with such, or are you thinking a gravity feed will power your sprinkler? you'll need a pump for sure

4/27/2006 3:20:34 PM

Raleigh Giving Away Recycled Water:
http://www.wral.com/news/9035872/detail.html

4/27/2006 3:21:03 PM

come on, Houston...you have an ME degree. this is a simple MAE 308 problem. you oughta be able to calculate it quicker than you could google it.

4/27/2006 3:24:33 PM

for a garden, yes for a yard, no, you'd need a much larger resevoir, what size is your house and what size is the lawn? how often do you plan to water and how much at a time? 1/4" 1/2"?

assuming the resevoir is large enough that is won't overfill, (ft^2 house/ft^2 yard)=precipitation ratio

therefore (inches rain that fall)*(precipitation ratio) inches of water for your lawn before next rain

say for example, your house area is 1000ft^2 and your yard is 8,000ft^2 thats a ratio of .125

so if you get .5" of natural rain per week, thats 325 gal of water on the house, which is 1/16" of water for the yard. so you would need a huge storage resevoir for a small amount of water for the yard

4/27/2006 3:30:43 PM

What good is a rain barrel when we aren't getting any rain?

4/27/2006 3:58:53 PM

The part of the yard i need to water is about the size of the house~1300 sq ft. I hadnt really thought about it the 69 put it, but that makes a lot of sense. Yeah duke if i knew the water pressure and the output of the sprinkler it would take two seconds.

4/27/2006 6:27:55 PM

even if you didn't know the output of the sprinkler...if you knew the diameter of the nozzles, and how the water was routed through the rest of the sprinkler (to find the total head loss up to the nozzles), you'd have it nailed.






so yeah, http://www.google.com

4/27/2006 6:55:43 PM

theDuke866, always ready to get on somebody's ass about MAE but what are you doing with your engineering degree, flying planes? oh but you sit behind the pilot don't you.

[Edited on April 27, 2006 at 7:58 PM. Reason : *]

4/27/2006 7:58:11 PM

Oh no he didn't!

4/27/2006 9:05:11 PM

i am too busy working and going back to school to read up on the nozzle diameter for a friggin sprinkler. I figured someone around here would know general numbers, this being an ag school. So duke, why dont you go concentrate on your future.

4/27/2006 9:23:29 PM

haha

4/27/2006 10:35:59 PM

i kid, i kid

4/28/2006 12:15:08 AM

Quote :

"if you knew the diameter of the nozzles, and how the water was routed through the rest of the sprinkler"

hard to tell with cheap chinese shit, none of those companies have specs listed due to loose manufacturing tolerances, now rainbird, on commercial and residental stuff has charts and equations for exact calculations for their products, which comes in handy when you do an installation like the one i just did at my grandparents house at lake gaston. 47 heads in 6 zones, plus 4 drip irrigation zones, all fed from a 5hp pump down at the lake, on an automatic controller

[Edited on April 28, 2006 at 11:01 PM. Reason : blah]

4/28/2006 11:00:31 PM