The volume of flow in a sprinkler system is measured in gallons per minute (gpm) in the US, and in liters per second (L/s) metrically. The velocity of flow is measured in linear feet per second (ft/s), meters per hour (m³/h), or liters per minute (l/m).
Flow in pipe is always accompanied by friction loss in the direction of the water flow.
The amount of friction loss (pressure loss) is due to four conditions:
- The velocity (speed) of the flow.
- Diameter of the pipe.
- Length of the pipe.
- Roughness of the pipe.
Velocity is simply the speed at what water moves through the pipe. As water travels through the sprinkler pipe the pressure gradually decreases. The faster the water moves through a sprinkler pipe, the higher the friction loss. Industry standards have have established 5 ft/s (1,5m/s) as an acceptable maximum velocity. Damaging surge pressures and rapidly increasing friction loss are two problems encountered when velocities exceed 5 feet per second (ft/s) – (1,5 m/s). To help determine what flow is safe to design with, there are pipe flow charts for various types of pipe in numerous sizes. Usually 1/2″ – 6″.
What all this means is that it is critical to be aware of some of these basic principles when designing or changing aspects of your sprinkler system. The most common problem I encounter when working on an existing sprinkler system is that the designer and/or the installer has not used these design principles. As an example, the last system I worked on had a 3/4″ water meter feeding the system, the pipe size was 3/4″ PVC Schedule 40, and the water pressure was 75 psi. The installer had put 10 sprinkler heads on one circuit and the homeowners were unhappy with how the heads were working and the coverage the heads were providing. The problem here was the heads were trying to use 20 gallons per minute and the sprinkler system could only safely deliver around 12 gallons per minute. To solve this design problem often times is tricky and potentially expensive for the homeowner.
I am including a table below so you can get an idea on what a pressure loss chart looks like. This table should be helpful if you are designing or installing your own sprinkler system. Try and keep your flow rates out of the shaded areas of the chart. Notice that for 1/2″ PVC pipe I wouldn’t want to try and force 10 gpm through the sprinkler pipe, but would be fine using 10 gpm through a 1″ sprinkler pipe. The table is for PVC Schedule 40 pipe which is the most common pipe currently being used in sprinkler systems. The psi loss on the table is for 100 feet of pipe (psi/100 ft).
The last paragraph before the chart is contradictory:
“….Try and keep your flow rates in the shaded areas of the chart. Notice that for 1/2″ PVC pipe I wouldn’t want to try and force 10 gpm through the sprinkler pipe, but would be fine using 10 gpm through a 1″ sprinkler pipe…..
Based on the common “max 5 fps rule”, the shaded area is an area to avoid, and the example you give does just that – a bit confusing.
I’m not an expert, but I want to use information from this chart for some piping-related training material. Your comment on my comment would be appreciated and helpful.
Website is great, by the way!
You’re right, I should have said in the paragraph “try to keep the flow rates out of the shaded areas.” I’ll correct the typo. Also, you can go into the shaded areas a bit when necessary, you just need to make sure that it doesn’t affect performance when doing so.
Thanks for the quick reply, and for helping me save my sanity….. so much info available I begin to do doubt myself after a while. K
I absolutely love your site.. Excellent colors & theme. Did you make this site yourself? Please reply back as I’m attempting to create my own site and want to find out where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called. Appreciate it!
WordPress theme is called Suffusion. I patterned the rest of my site to match the theme.
Not a comment, but a question. I am designing a system and have a flow rate of 18 GPM from the source. In my design, I have three zones with total flow rates of 14.3, 10.39, 9.73 respectively. I have used a spreadsheet to size the pipe for each zone according to the gpm needed to supply the head and maintain velocity under 5. Are you saying that I need to increase the heads for each zone to bring the total gpm needed for the zone up to the 18 available?
Not at all. You do not need to use all of the flow available to each sprinkler zone. Using 14 gpm in a sprinkler system that is producing 18 gpm shows a good design. The 18 gpm is a number you don’t want to exceed when adding up the flow the sprinkler heads use. From the information you have given me your sprinklers should work great.