Thoughts on irrigation using pump in pond?

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Marinegrunt
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Thoughts on irrigation using pump in pond?

Post by Marinegrunt » May 2nd, 2017, 1:14 pm

Does anyone have any opinions on an irrigation system being pumped from a body of water? The line would be running up a steep 100' ravine and plan on an electric pump. I'll be irrigating about 9000 sq/ft. It would be nice to be able to water the whole yard at once so I could just put the pump on a timer. I'm not sure if one pump could water 9000k at once.

Would I be better off just installing a system incorporated into out water supply? We don't have a sewer fee since we're on septic but do have city water. I just figure it would be much cheaper not using city water. Our last bill for our family of 4 was $49.60 for 7502 gallons. I did some researching and it sounds like 1" of water over 10,000 sq/ft was around 6500 gallons. If that's correct I'd be looking at around another $150-$200 if I didn't take rain into account. Does that sound about right?

It would be nice to be able to water without picturing droplets of coins coming out of the sprinkler heads instead of water every time the irrigation came on.

I'm just looking for opinions of which way I should go and if running from a pond would just turn into a headache.

Thanks!

Riverpilot
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Re: Thoughts on irrigation using pump in pond?

Post by Riverpilot » May 2nd, 2017, 1:50 pm

From reading on various other forums about irrigation, there are pro's who have done that. It seems like the biggest problem is having a filter system and cleaning the pump when/if it gets clogged up.

I'd go with an irrigation company if you were going to try something like that, IMO.

g-man
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Re: Thoughts on irrigation using pump in pond?

Post by g-man » May 2nd, 2017, 3:17 pm

1) Do you own the pond?

2) Doing all 9,000k in one zone will be a challenge. You will need the pump to deliver all the gpm of all the heads and maintain the pressure level at each head above ~45PSI after going thru the 100'. You also need to add the elevation change from the pond up to your yard and the filtration. Without any calculations, it wont be cheap to do this in one zone. The pump for high gpm and the size of the pipes would be the biggest expense in this mode.

3) A good irrigation controller (ie. Rachio), could turn on the pump via a 24v connection to the pump start relay and then open each zone independently. This is what folks with a irrigation well do. This allows a smaller pump and less pressure needs since there is less water flow. This is possible, but it is a lot of work (physical and design) and I would recommend not DIY. Long term it is cheaper to use the water from the pond than the city. Call a few irrigation companies local to you and ask them to see if they do this work. Actually ask to quote it both ways so you know the difference.

Marinegrunt
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Re: Thoughts on irrigation using pump in pond?

Post by Marinegrunt » May 2nd, 2017, 4:46 pm

Thank you both for the great advice. I appreciate it.

I kind of wondered if it would be a design challenge especially considering I know nothing about irrigation. If it's not something that's diy I probably won't do it. My wife would rather have weeds than spend $4k+(?) on a system.

It sounds like I had better run off of my water supply. I guess I could always experiment with a pump by tying into the system sometime down the road during the off season just to see what I can figure out.

I installed a new water main last summer and I know the new meter set has a backflow preventer so I know I'm covered there. My yard has no grass right now so planning on seeding in the fall. I'll do some reading on irrigation systems and I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you.

Thank you for the advice.

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