Sprinkler Rain Delay
As you drive around your home town when it is raining, it is easy to see automatic lawn sprinkler systems watering the already soaked grass. The common thought is “why don’t those idiots turn off their sprinkler system?”. And if you
have a fairly recent controller for your sprinkler system, installing a rain delay sensor is sooo easy. So this article is not so much for showing you “how” but to help get you motivated to get it done.
It is not a problem to mix different brands parts for the rest of your automatic sprinkler system, the controller, the heads and the drip systems but I recommend getting the same brand rain sensor as your controller. I have an Orbit controller so I added an Orbit rain delay sensor. If you have a Rain Bird controller, I would add a Rain Bird rain sensor. At least they are factory tested and tuned to work together. Both brands are simple to install.
First you locate the sensor within reasonable distance of the controller so that you have enough wire to go from the sensor to the controller, which comes with the sensor. The placement needs to be where any rain fall gets accumulated in the sensor. Even if there is a 0.1 inch of rain, your sensor should collect this since it may rain 0.1 inch every ten minutes, it does add up.
Do not place the rain delay sensor under a tree, an overhang or other area that limits the amount of precipitation that can be collected. Also do not locate the sensor where your sprinkler system or other watering can affect the readings. I know one guy that did this and every time a certain sprinkler system zone came on, the system shut off. You think?
The second part of the installation is to run the wire from the sensor to the controller and connect the two conductor wire to the rain delay terminals on your controller. Now just make sure the controller is adjusted, usually a small switch, to accept the sensor readings. The readings are simply, ON or OFF. The sensor does not communicate the exact measurement to the controller, just if some precipitation has occurred.
However you can adjust the sensor to turn off the sprinkler system based upon a certain amount of precipitation. There is also an adjustment on the sensor to help determine how long the rain delay in active based upon how fast the collected precipitation evaporates, at least on the Orbit sensor. These adjustments are a little coarse, so you may need to adjust the sensor a few times to get the correct settings. Typically what happens is when you get a good rain but the sensor only keeps the sprinklers off for one day, when it could be two or three. This also depends upon how warm it gets after the rain since it depends upon the evaporation rate. But overall these sensors work well at least well enough to keep your water conservative neighbors happy.
Before you purchase a rain delay sensor, first make sure there are connection terminals on your controller.
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