WICHITA, KS, JAN 31, 2020 -- Great Plains Industries, Inc. (GPI®) has released a new case study of its FLOMEC® QS200 Insertion Ultrasonic Flowmeter. The QS200 is designed to support commercial irrigation applications and measures flow rates five times lower than current flow sensors on the market—as low as 0.22GPM. It provides extended leak detection down to 0.1fps.
"Entities that rely on commercial irrigation—whether it's a business, municipality or, in this case, an educational institution—are under more pressure than ever to control their water usage and costs," said Mark Bieberle, Meter Product Manager. "System leaks that once were considered small are no longer acceptable. The problem is that traditional mechanical impeller meters often can't read the low flows required in many irrigation applications. This limits their ability to find those small leaks that add up to big water losses over time.
"We engineered the ultrasonic FLOMEC® QS200 precisely to solve that problem."
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville's, Landscape Services department is responsible for the landscape maintenance and upkeep of 780 acres of space on the University's Main and Agricultural campuses, as well as an additional 200 acres at their Cherokee Farms site. Landscape Services is responsible for keeping the turf, trees, shrubs and landscape beds beautiful, healthy and maintained.
The University of Tennessee is one of the largest turf research schools in the U.S.
The University uses both drip irrigation and standard spray lines. Seeping valves were creating mud holes throughout the campus, causing damage to landscaping and a potential hazard for students and faculty. The leaks were also causing water to run over sidewalks and/or into parking lots.
However, the 1" impeller flow meters on the drip irrigation lines showed no readings. This made it difficult to pinpoint the leaking valves. There was also a suspicion of missed flow readings on the standard spray lines.
In addition, the university had to replace units as they seized up.
Mechanical impeller meters must see a minimum flow rate such that the impeller will overcome friction and start moving in order to sense any flow. They often can't read the low flows typical of many commercial irrigation applications. This limits their ability to find leaking valves or other irrigation system leaks.
This is not a rare occurrence and accounts for significant amounts of wasted water in commercial irrigation systems.
The FLOMEC® QS200 is an ultrasonic flowmeter with no moving parts. Because of this, there is no mechanical friction, allowing it to measure much lower flows than mechanical impeller meters.
The QS200 has helped the University of Tennessee prevent problems with seepage and runoff, resulting in much lower costs in repairing these areas. The new flowmeters notify them if too much water is flowing. The University now uses the QS200 on 50% of its drip irrigation lines and 50% of its standard spray lines, with plans to retrofit more in the future.
Having a non-mechanical ultrasonic meter that reads lower flow rates accurately made the QS200 an easy decision for the University of Tennessee.
For more information on the QS200 Ultrasonic flowmeter visit flomec.net/qs200
