Irrigation question

[hucker]

I have a topology question for setting up irrigation in our various gardens (vegi's, flowers, shrubs). Lets say I get a rain8 and have a bunch of boxes that I want to water independently and they are all in similar proximity (all lined up but 50ft from water supply). I could either:

a) run 5 sets of pipes from the house and have the valves all neatly in a row by the house
B) run a main water line and wiring to valves right at the boxes.

Is there an advantage? Prefered method? What are the gotchas I need to know about? I like the idea or running wires out there because it allows me to have sensors out there (in the future...).

Thx

 

[mustangcoupe]

I have all my valves in a box by the house. But the friend of mine who does this as a business has valves all over his property and runs the wire out to them. And as you said will give you more flexibility in the future.

 

[Michael McSharry]

A typical install will have 1" main to the valve and then 3/4" to the sprinkler heads. When you place your valves near the source rather than near the heads then you need to assure that adequate pipe volume exists after the valve so you do not have pressure loss before it reaches the head(s). In my install there would be significant difference in the amout of pipe I would need to run between the two architectures. One main to a remote distribution point is much easier and cheaper than multiple high volume lines. If however, you will have multiple valves open at the same time then you need to consider the pipe size that can handle it. I have 16 zones which are typically clustered with 3 or 4 valves manifolded at remote locations.