sump flow idea

[amehel0]

just thought of a cool idea for people with sumps.i was thinking of having a flow metre on the pump return to the tank and a flow controller on the intake to the sump. so if there is a power outtage or other problem, the water going to the sump is controlled to the flow of pump return pipe to tank. heres a more under standable way to put it. say you put in a 800lph pump then instead of having a valve to fine tune the setting and you do it by eye sight; you have a flow metre on the pump return pipe. you then place a flow controll on the intake to sump.so if your pump gets clogged and the flow is reduced to 600lph then the flow metre on the pump side makes the flow controll on the sump input side change its flow rat to 600lph. and then say you have a power outtage. same kinda thing happens. the only problem in the system is the cost of electronic flow metres and controllers.

 

[rallysman]

Good thought but unnecessary.

All you need is a sump that can handle residual overflow with a return that has a siphon break. Also have an overflow with the capability to flow more than your pumps (should be assumed/standard).

 

[CHOMPERS]

good thinking though; Rube Goldberg would love it

 

[cvermeulen]

The other problem is that if your flow meter and flow control aren't matched to each other perfectly, one tank or the other overflows.

Maybe another way to do it would be to have a float in the sump, and when the sump water starts rising past a certain point, the flow control on the overflows starts to shut down. Electronic VFC valves are expensive, too.... but you COULD make a mechanical link between your float and the overflow valve - much like how a toilet valve works.

All that said, it's probably one of those ideas better suited to staying on paper you'd want to have your sump able to absorb the water drop from the tank anyways, just in case.... so why bother, unless you really need your tank level to always stay the same.

 

[TEL]

To control the flow rate of my pump I just put a T pice with a tap on it so the excess water pressure is diverted back into the sump and if the pump flow rate is reduced for what ever reason the water level in the sump will rise to a certen point when the water leval goes below the bulkhead fitting. The flow will restart when the pump put enough water back into the tank. This is ok untill i fix the pump problem and if your sump is setup right the return pump should not have anything to glog it up with. this is alot cheaper way of fixing that problem.