1/14/2018 How to Estimate Water Useage Required for an Irrigation System

Irrigation Tutorials
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How Much Water Will Your Irrigation

System Need?
The amount of water needed for irrigation depends on many different factors.  A reasonably
accurate estimate of the amount of irrigation water needed can be made using Eto data for
your actual zip code.  “Eto” is the amount of water needed for irrigation, based on scienti c
research.  You can nd the historic Eto for any zip code in the USA at the
website http://www.rainmaster.com/historicET.aspx courtesy of the Rainmaster irrigation
controller company, who makes very good “Smart” irrigation controllers.   I use one of their
Eagle model controllers on my own home.  (Rainmaster get a plug from me as well as a big
“thank you” for providing the ETo look up service online.)  Unfortunately the Eto value only tells
you how many inches per day are needed, which for most folks is a meaningless value. It
makes more sense if you think about rainfall which is often also measured in inches.  If you nd
you need 0.20 inches of irrigation, then 0.20 inches of rainfall would provide the required water. 
But most people in the USA want a value in gallons, which requires you to provide a little more
information about your yard.  Then you plug the values into a simple formula, and do a little
multiplication and division on any calculator.

Formula to calculate the gallons of irrigation water needed per day:

(Eto x PF x SF x 0.62 ) / IE  =  Gallons of Water per day

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Values for the formula:

Eto: Get this from http://www.rainmaster.com/historicET.aspx .  Enter your zip code, or a nearby
zipcode, and the website will give you the average daily ET value for each month of the year.
 Use the highest value or the “suggested reference value”.  Usually they are the same thing.

PF: This is the plant factor.  Different plants need different amounts of water.  Use a value of 1.0
for lawn.  For water loving shrubs use .80, for average water use shrubs use 0.5, for low water
use shrubs use 0.3.

SF: This is the area to be irrigated in square feet.  So for a 30 foot x 50 foot lawn you would use
1500.
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1/14/2018 How to Estimate Water Useage Required for an Irrigation System

0.62: A constant value used for conversion.

IE: Irrigation e ciency.  Some irrigation water never gets used by the plant, this value
compensates for that.  I suggest using 0.75 as the value for this.  Very well designed sprinkler
systems with little run-off that using e cent sprinklers can have e ciencies of 80% (use 0.80). 
Drip irrigation systems typically have e ciencies of 90% (use 0.90).

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Example:
A 1500 square foot grass lawn in zip code 85232 (Central Arizona)
Start by looking up the Eto for zip code 85232 at the Rainmaster website, which displays a
suggested reference value of 0.3 inches per day using June, the driest month of the year in that
area.

Now rewrite the formula inserting your values into it:

0.3 (Eto value)  x  1.0 (grass value)  x 1500 (sq ft)  x 0.62 ÷ 0.75 (e cency factor) = gallons of
water per day

Now do the math, just punch the values into a calculator and get your answer:
0.3   x   1.0   x   1500   x   0.62   ÷   0.75   =   372 gallons per day

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We could gure out the average daily water use for other months of the year also.  Just use the
same formula but insert the Eto value from the Rainmaster website for the month you want to
get a valve for.

Remember this calculation just gives you an estimated value.  There are many other factors
that could make this value higher or lower.  When planning for how much water a system that
has not yet been designed or installed will use, it would be very wise to allow for  error by
adding 10% or more to the daily water use needed.  It is generally better to have too much water,
than to have too
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1/14/2018 How to Estimate Water Useage Required for an Irrigation System

A common related question is “how much water pressure will my irrigation system need?”  The
answer depends on a lot of factors, but as a rule of thumb, I would suggest 50 PSI of water
pressure as a good starting point for sprinklers, 45 PSI for drip systems.  If you have a large
yard and want to put the sprinklers farther than 30 feet apart you will need more pressure.  For
example, if you want your sprinklers 45 feet apart you will probably need 65 PSI of water
pressure.  To get a real value you will need to create an actual sprinkler system design. See the
Landscape Sprinkler Irrigation System Design Tutorial .

Never buy a pump, sprinklers, or any other materials before your sprinkler design is completed!

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