so this may look like a dumb question, and i have search the forum but eh found allot of setup help etc… and see the talk about calibration and what not but not finding the answer to the question i have
so the flow meter DOES provide
- visibility into per zone water usage
- anomaly detection and warnings and auto shut off for a blown head / pipe
what i am un clear of is, does the flow meter dynamically adjusts or even a one time adjust during calibration the the Nozzle Inches Per Hour rating for a zone (assuming the sq footage of the zone is setup correctly, and i have put the accurate count of nozzles in the zone map) ? or must i set up 10 tuna cans regardless and calculate manually.
so dynamically the formula would look something like this (my flow number will be totally made up because i have NO clue what is actually reasonable, and assuming near even distribution of water over the area)
Sq footage of zone = 2550sqft
meter reads = 7gph
7gph = 420 Gallons
cubic foot = 7.48 gallons
cubic feet of water = 56.15 cubic feet
56.15 cubic feet spread over 2550sqft = 56.15/2550 = 0.022019608 iph at 100% efficiency
sure it may not be a perfect example of what the yard actually gets because no heads are 100% efficiently laid out but it probably gets you to 95% accurate and close enough for me to not have to by and eat 20 cans of tuna and spend my time measuring them 10 times
or in the end is the flow meter integration only just for o look cool i used that much water and i have a safety shut off ?
Good question, but I’m guessing it doesn’t effect your nozzle precip rate setting. It’s possible your sprinklers could be spraying into the street or some other non-targeted area, all that water would be used and measured by the meter but not collected in catch cups or make it to the grass. The flow meter also won’t tell you your zone efficiency.
agree but… it gets you closer then having nothing and a random totally default as 1 as the value when it could be a 5 or it could be a .001 like really the 1 just seems random i would rather have some type of calculation that puts me in the ball part and ya i can look at it and say yup look 10% is going on the driveway and side walk and adjust that with the efficiency slider. all I’m saying is that it would be nice to have the option it at least would get me in the ball part with a close approximation and then when i have a weekend to waste doing catch cups i can but in the mean time im sure i am underwatering in some places and over watering in others and WAY out of wack so it would be nice to narrow it down a bit.
From a controls perspective, I can understand why the system would not adjust to flow rates. You’re basically correcting a mechanical issue with a controls solution.
Everything changing flow is an issue that should be fixed (nozzles plugged, leak somewhere, missing head, partially open valve, stuck valve on another zone). All of those need to notify the owner to fix it, not alter watering to correct for it. Even low or high supply pressure changing flow rates should be addressed by owner, since it would seem pressure regulators were not used and likely the radius of spray is being altered.
