The Lawn Sprinkler System

Overview

At the risk of stating the obvious, the sprinkler system exists to water the lawn. It is primarily a water distribution system: pressurized water is routed to different areas of the lawn based on which valve is open.

At a high level, it consists of:

• Two well points
• The PVC pipes from those to feed a check valve. From there, the water flows a very short distance to the water pump.
• The water pump feeds a network of pipes that distribute water to sprinkler heads
  • Common pipes feed water from the pump to each of two zone valve boxes, each having a subset of electronic valves. Each valve controls water flow to one of seven zones¹.
  • A manifold in each valve box distributes water to the valves in that box.
  • Each valve, in turn, feeds (a network of) pipes dedicated to its zone.
  • Sprinkler heads are arranged along the pipe(s) to cover all parts of the lawn, primarily grass, but also some flower beds.
• Multi-conductor wire conduit, typically buried in the same trench as the pipe that delivers water to each valve box, carries the power signal that directs the opening/closing of each zone’s water valve. One multi-wire conduit for each valve box controls the valves in that box.
• A main control box that, on a schedule, turns the pump on/off via a relay switch, as necessary to deliver water to each zone whenever it’s zone-valve open, which is also controlled by the control box. Only one zone can be open/sprinkling at a time. The controller box connects to Home Assistant for monitoring, but the schedule is controlled by the control box. A phone app is used to modify the schedule or control a zone manually as needed during sprinkler head maintenance, etc.

More details on each component of the system will be documented on supporting pages.

TODO

• Document
  • the location of the well points and pipe feeding the well pump
  • the location and pipe routing for each of the seven zones, including locations of valve boxes and which zone each valve controls
  • the location and workings of the rain sensor.
  • information about the company that installed the system. They might still have some access to and control of the controller box