Booster pump for whole house and sprinkler

[schach23]

Hello all,

Did a search and didn't find any previous questions about my topic.

I recently moved into my current house, and am less than impressed with my overall water pressure situation. County water guarantees 50 psi incoming. When I run my sprinkler system, there just isn't good performance from my Hunter heads. I have on average 4-5 rotors on each zone, and 9 zones. I have one zone that barely pops up the pop up type of heads. When the sprinklers are on, and I use the shower, the water pressure is weak. I had a sprinkler guy come out and give me recommendations to "boost" the pressure, and adding a booster pump was his recommendation. Many of the houses in my subdivision have booster pumps so the pressure is a common problem. As it is now, the water comes into my house, then splits to the house and the sprinkler system.

My question is this, can I put in a booster pump for both the house and the sprinkler system? Something that would not only boost the sprinkler system, but the house pressure when the sprinkler system is running? Would a pressure tank be helpful? I plan on renovating the master bath, and wanted to add the side sprayers and overhead rain shower, so I think I am going to need more pressure for that.

Thanks

Scott

 

[Valveman]

You can do a booster pump with a CSV set up for the controls like the one in the picture to the left. This will let you put the booster pump before that tee, and the CSV will vary the flow to match whatever is turned on, sprinklers, house, or both. But you need to know the GPM required by adding up the flow needed for the side sprayers, overhead rain, sprinkler zones, and anything else you want to run at the same time. Next you need to see how large the incoming water line and water meter are, as you can’t boost more water than you can get from that pipe. Usually we just determine max flow from the meter and pipe, design a booster for that many GPM, and try to make things like the irrigation come on at odd hours.

 

[speedbump]

I don't know if you have Water Police like we do here in Florida, but these guys catch you watering during the daylight hours and you get fined big time. I really don't disagree with the fact that watering at night uses less water and costs even less. But I don't like being told when I can or can't.