RU2217903C2 - System for watering plants - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: systems for watering plants, mainly, indoor and garden plants in prolonged absence of their owners with automatic maintenance of preset water flow rate per time unit. SUBSTANCE: system has water source, vessel for level control from which dropping device below level extends into accumulating vessel. Water from water-accumulating vessel is periodically supplied with help of built-in siphon pipeline to dividing vessel from which water simultaneously flows through, at least, two outlets. Dividing vessel allows one part of liquid to be supplied directly for plant watering, and the other part to be collected to return vessel, or for use for watering of larger number of other plants. Ratio of liquid flows in different outlets of dividing vessel is preliminarily set by throttling controller built in one or more outlets. In this case, flow rates of minimal and maximal flows of different outlets may differ in tenfolds. So, liquid flow for plant watering may be tenfolds less than flow through dropping device and amount in order up to 1g per h. EFFECT: provided manless continuous watering of plants for several weeks. 1 dwg

Description

 On the garden plot and in the house, the simplest automatic, continuous long-term watering is often required, which ensures the development of indoor and garden plants in the absence of a person who can control watering.

 Currently, gardeners are offered a system in which the flow rate through one irrigation element is very high and amounts to 1 ... 3 liters per hour. In the systems described in the literature and in patent information, the minimum water consumption can be 0.3 ... 0.5 and even 0.02 ... 0.05 liters per hour. However, this flow rate in some cases is excessive and leads to overfilling and waterlogging of the soil, especially in the case of indoor plants.

 The reasons limiting the minimum water supply in these systems are mainly the limited accuracy of the pressure regulation and the minimum allowable size of the drip holes, which prevents them from clogging. In this regard, the composition of the elements of the system and its characteristics as a whole, the closest analogue of the proposed irrigation system is a continuous drip irrigation system, presented in the description of the patent of the Russian Federation 2177684 according to the application 99105510/13 (005819), class. A 01 G 25/01, dated 03/18/1999. It contains a water supply source (for example, a pump or a container with a pressure pipe), a level regulator with a tank, to which a watering pipe with drip holes is connected. A sufficiently small minimum flow rate in this system is ensured by extremely high accuracy of pressure control in the drip holes with the minimum permissible flow cross-section of the system, in particular, in the drip hole.

 In order to reduce the minimum watering achieved in the described prototype to the values acceptable when watering indoor plants, it is proposed to accumulate in the storage tank a certain amount of water entering through the drip hole, interrupting the water supply to the ground for some time, and the accumulated volume for a shorter time (therefore, through sections larger than the drip hole) to release into two or more streams through a certain divider, directing one of the streams to water, the second stream can be returned It is connected to the system input or accumulate in a sufficiently large intermediate tank for subsequent return. Intermittent supply to the ground can be achieved if the storage tank is divided into two tanks, and the second (tank-divider), which has at least two outlets, is connected to the storage tank through a siphon pipeline, the entrance to which is located above the exit from it.

 An example implementation of the proposed irrigation system is shown in the drawing.

 The system contains a level regulator with a water supply fitting 1, a regulator valve 2 and a float 3 placed in the tank of the level regulator 4. Below the liquid level, a pipeline 5 is installed in the wall of the regulator tank with a drip hole connecting the regulator to the storage tank 6. The storage tank is installed siphon pipe 7, the output of which is connected to the tank-divider stream 8. The free volumes of both tanks - the drive and the divider are connected with the atmosphere.

 At least one of the exits 9 of the divider supplies liquid to water the plant, and at least one of the exits 10 of the divider diverts the excess part of the irrigation liquid to an additional tank (not shown in the drawing) for return. In one of the outputs (10) of the divider, a tuning choke-regulator 11 can be installed that changes the ratio of directly irrigated and excess (return) costs.

 The proposed irrigation system works as follows. The water supplied from the source to the inlet fitting 1 fills the cavity 4 of the level controller. Through the hole 5 located below this level, the liquid enters the storage tank 6 and fills it to the filling level of the siphon pipeline 7; after this, the siphon pipeline for a relatively short time passes the accumulated liquid into the dividing tank 8, and the freed part of the accumulation cavity again begins to fill through the drip hole 5, and the cycle repeats.

 The liquid flowing through the siphon 7 into the divider 8 expires from it through two outlets 9 and 10, distributed in them according to the costs in accordance with the hydraulic resistance of these outputs. The ratio of the hydraulic resistance of the outputs can be changed using a tuning choke.

 The average per cycle fluid flow rate through the irrigation outlet 9 is reduced in comparison with the average per cycle flow rate through the drip hole 5 as many times as the resistance of the outlet 9 is greater than the resistance of all other exits combined.

 In the simplest case, a filled bucket or other similar container located above the regulator level can be used as a water source, and a similar container installed below the system level can be used as a receiver for excess, returned water. In this form, the system works by gravity.

Claims (1)

An irrigation system for plants, mainly indoor and garden, containing a water supply source and a level regulator capacity, to which a drip device in the form of a pipeline with a drip hole is connected below the liquid level, characterized in that the drip device is placed in a container connected to the upper part of the atmosphere, outlet from which it is made siphon and connected to the second tank with at least two outlets, one of which is directed directly to irrigation, and the second through an adjustable choke to the collection tank excess fluid and return it to the beginning of the system.