Before starting to design our new irrigation system in the garden it will be necessary to carry out a couple of checks on the available water supply.
We have to check the flow and pressure of the water at the distribution tap in the garden.
In this way we will be able to create a correctly sized system.
To calculate the flow rate, we take a container whose capacity we know, open the tap completely and measure how long it takes to fill.
To know the flow just calculate the hourly flow.
for example, if the container has a capacity of 10 liters and is filled in 20 seconds, our system has a flow rate of 1800 liters / hour.
If the container had filled up in 30 seconds, the plant would have a capacity of 1200 liters / hour.
Hydraulic pressure
To measure the pressure at the tap instead, we will need an instrument often used by plumbers, the pressure gauge.
We'll have to screw it to the tap and measure the pressure.
If the pressure is less than 2 atmospheres we will have to install a pump to feed the system in order to increase the pressure.
