First boosted sprinkles! Our sprinkler contractors are here this morning, and they finished running all the pipe in our back yard. That means ... we could pressurize the entire sprinkler system – all 23 zones – and I can irrigate again in the south half of the system (the north half needs the sprinkler heads installed). This means I had the first chance to test the booster pump system with water actually running through the system. Of course I had to do that right away!
So I lit off the zone that contains our struggling lilacs, and then lit off the pump. It took about six seconds for the pump to start up and then ramp up its speed until we had the targeted pressure (50 psi). Once there, it bobbled about for about five seconds more, and then it was rock-solid at 50 psi. This is while around 30 gallons per minute are flowing, and the inlet pressure to the pump was at 32 psi. So we're getting a nice, steady 18 psi boost, exactly as designed. Woo hoo!
At that 18 psi boost, the pump is consuming 5.6 amps on the single-phase 220 volt input line. That works out to about 1,200 watts, which is about the same as Debbie's hair dryer. Not bad! Right now that power is being supplied entirely by my solar panel array, so it's costing me exactly nothing. Even better! :)
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