Hi all. I have some rain barrels setup with a standard 3/4" hose output for my garden. I’m looking to automate this by controlling the on/off of the hose with esphome. I believe it should be simple enough to setup in esphome.
I’m mostly wondering about the solenoid valve to purchase. I’ve been looking and several reviews for various valves mention that it needs a pressurized line. Since I’ll be connecting this to my rain barrel setup, the only pressure I’ll have is from gravity. Can anyone recommend a solenoid valve that is suitable for this situation?
Most should fit the needs, the main thing I would consider is what voltage you can run them from.
This how to would be a good starting point to plan your setup in a similar way with more HA friendly controls/devices to control:
Thanks @TH3xR34P3R. Pretty much any voltage should be fine as I would be using a relay to control it. I also already have my rain barrels setup to collect water from the downspout.
The link you supplied is using a pump inside the barrel to feed the hose lines, so I assume that would be pushing a decent amount of water pressure. Ideally, I’d prefer to skip this as I already have my drip hose connected to the rain barrel spout and it works fine as-is. So, the gravity pressure I have is already enough without adding a pump.
I’m just concerned that a adding a solenoid valve might restrict the flow with just the gravity pressure. I’ll probably just grab a couple different valves and try them out to see which works well enough.
The how to mentions that drop in pressure and how to get around it:
Normal soaker hoses and drip tubes are designed to work with mains water at a pressure of about 60 PSIG. This pump will deliver maybe 8 PSIG, gravity alone will get you about 2 PSIG. Use soakers and drip tubes that are designed for use with water barrels, or drill your own slightly bigger holes in the conventional ones.