Landscape Irrigation Formulas

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Quick Index by Formula Type:

Metric to U.S. System Conversions
U.S. To Metric Conversions
Area and Distance Conversions
Water Pressure Conversions
Flow and Water Volume Conversions
Pump Calculations
Miscellaneous Irrigation Formulas


Metric to U.S. System Conversions, Calculations, Equations, and Formulas:

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U.S. to Metric Conversions, Formulas, Calculations, and Equations:

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Area and Distance Conversions, Equations, Calculations, and Formulas:

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Water Pressure Equations, Conversions, Formulas, and Calculations:

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Flow and Water Volume Formulas, Conversions, Calculations, and Equations:

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Pump Calculations, Conversions, Equations, and Formulas:

The following formulas assume 55% pump efficiency (the standard assumption).

Note: Horsepower is Brake horse power for an electric motor. Do not use for fuel-powered pump engines!

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Miscellaneous Irrigation Formulas, Conversions, Equations, and Calculations:

Sprinkler Precipitation Rate

Note: "head spacing" is the distance between sprinkler heads. L = length between heads in the row, W = width between rows. Therefore "head spacing " = L x W. Use the GPM value for a full circle sprinkler. So if your sprinklers are all half circles, you need to double the GPM value so it is equivalent to a full circle value. Precipitation rate result will be in inches per hour. The common abbreviation for precipitation rate is "ppt".

Precipitation rate for square sprinkler spacing:

(GPM of full circle sprinkler x 96.3) / head spacing in feet = precipitation rate

 

Precipitation rate for triangular sprinkler spacing:

(GPM of full circle sprinkler x 96.3) / (head spacing in feet x 0.866) = precipitation rate

 

Example: A irrigation system with sprinklers arranged in rows. The rows are 30 feet apart and the sprinklers are 25 feet apart in the row. The sprinkler heads are arranged in a triangle pattern. Each sprinkler head uses 6 GPM. The calculations for precipitation rate would use the formula above for triangular spacing:

(6 x 96.3) / (30 x 25) x 0.866 = ppt

multiply the numbers in the parenthesis to get-
577.8 / 750 x 0.866 = ppt

do multiplication before division-
577.8 / 649.5 = ppt

finally do the division-
0.89 inches per hour = ppt

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