Post by papaof2 on Apr 30, 2021 21:35:17 GMT -6
The landscaping work to clean up from having several trees taken out and the stumps and roots ground is showing progress. The landscaping crew hand-sowed grass seed but I followed up that very uneven application with new grass fertilizer and a second seeding using a broadcast spreader for more even coverage.
Got the bill for last month's usage from County Water this week and our usage is up 150% over the previous month. No surprise when I've been watering multiple times a day. Now that I have grass - 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches high, depending on when it was sown - the watering can be greatly reduced. I have a water meter that reads in cubic meters and fractions thereof, but the conversions are easy - 1 cubic meter is 264 gallons, 0.1 cubic meter is 26.4 gallons, 0.01 cubic meter is 2.64 gallons - so easy enough to watch for an increase of 0.04 cubic meters and call it 10 gallons and similar math for the others. I used about 135 gallons today through five sprinklers - arranged to just cover the seeded areas.
After dark, I got to thinking about how I could do watering if County Water was shut down for any reason - I would like to keep this investment alive and also prevent the new topsoil from being washed away when we get the next monsoon here ;-) I have almost 500 gallons of potential rainwater storage (four 55 gallon barrels plus a 275 gallon container). That much storage could provide water for three and a half days. I have several 12 volt pumps but probably not one that can provide the 80-100psi street pressure that's available at one outdoor hydrant. I'd need to see what the PSI versus GPM curves for the sprinklers I'm using look like but I probably would NOT get the 100 foot circle of the Orbit rainbird-style sprinkler head with a pump that can't deliver close to the flow and pressure of that one hydrant. I have two pumps with hot-stamped model info (but no label) which appear to be on-demand, 24 volts, 35psi. 1.2gpm (72gph). Those might be OK for pressure but the GPM probably needs to be higher. I have two 14psi, 4.6gpm (280gph) submersible 12 volt pumps which might work OK for flow but the low pressure certainly won't provide a 100 foot circle of water. I have plenty of sprinklers, so I could work up a group that delivered 135 gallons/day over the area to be covered - just not nearly so quickly as the current configuration :-(
A few more weeks and the roots may be good enough for the new grass to manage on the current once-or-twice-a-month rainfall but I might test a couple of pumps and see what range the sprinklers have on each type...
Got the bill for last month's usage from County Water this week and our usage is up 150% over the previous month. No surprise when I've been watering multiple times a day. Now that I have grass - 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches high, depending on when it was sown - the watering can be greatly reduced. I have a water meter that reads in cubic meters and fractions thereof, but the conversions are easy - 1 cubic meter is 264 gallons, 0.1 cubic meter is 26.4 gallons, 0.01 cubic meter is 2.64 gallons - so easy enough to watch for an increase of 0.04 cubic meters and call it 10 gallons and similar math for the others. I used about 135 gallons today through five sprinklers - arranged to just cover the seeded areas.
After dark, I got to thinking about how I could do watering if County Water was shut down for any reason - I would like to keep this investment alive and also prevent the new topsoil from being washed away when we get the next monsoon here ;-) I have almost 500 gallons of potential rainwater storage (four 55 gallon barrels plus a 275 gallon container). That much storage could provide water for three and a half days. I have several 12 volt pumps but probably not one that can provide the 80-100psi street pressure that's available at one outdoor hydrant. I'd need to see what the PSI versus GPM curves for the sprinklers I'm using look like but I probably would NOT get the 100 foot circle of the Orbit rainbird-style sprinkler head with a pump that can't deliver close to the flow and pressure of that one hydrant. I have two pumps with hot-stamped model info (but no label) which appear to be on-demand, 24 volts, 35psi. 1.2gpm (72gph). Those might be OK for pressure but the GPM probably needs to be higher. I have two 14psi, 4.6gpm (280gph) submersible 12 volt pumps which might work OK for flow but the low pressure certainly won't provide a 100 foot circle of water. I have plenty of sprinklers, so I could work up a group that delivered 135 gallons/day over the area to be covered - just not nearly so quickly as the current configuration :-(
A few more weeks and the roots may be good enough for the new grass to manage on the current once-or-twice-a-month rainfall but I might test a couple of pumps and see what range the sprinklers have on each type...