Does anybody use city water pressure to run high/low pressuer misters?

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Trichoderma

New Member
I was at the local hardware store today and saw in the front of their garden section they had those misters for cooling yourself or your outdoor plants. The mist was very fine similar to what would be ideal for a aeroponic garden. Much smaller micron size than ez clone or low pressure sprayers. That got me thinking why not just use your city water pressure to run your aeroponics system? After all its free and would be a lot less expensive than running a high PSI pump and cycle timer. With some basic skills you could run a hose bib into your house and set it on one of those water pressure timers for sprinklers( no electricity) . It would be cost effective and work well. After doing some research typical city water pressure runs on average from 50-70psi and maxes up to 100psi. Doesn't this mean you could run your aero system for just the cost of a few gallons water a day literally only pennies. Just hoping for some insight from some more experienced aero farmers to see if this is a good idea or if someone somewhere is doing it with success. -Tricoderma
 
hornedfrog2000

hornedfrog2000

Well-Known Member
^^^ Yeah, the city water doesn't come pre diluted with nutrients, so...? Pumps uses very little electricity, and timers are like $10.
 
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Atomizer

Well-Known Member
The pressure and low temperature are useful but you`ll be needing something like a Dosatron D14MZ2 ($390) to add nutes and a dosing pump/controller for PH control.
A low flow, high psi pump uses very little power, in fact, some dont need any power at all ;)
 
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Atomizer

Well-Known Member
There is a way to do it on the cheap but it`d take some trial and error. If you have 100psi "on tap" it may be worth the effort and the cost of an accumulator ;)
 
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dazedel8

New Member
I was thinking you could probably do this if you had a 2 sided pressure tank, then you could just release the water to the drain and repressurize it after every spray.. seems like a huge waste of water though :D Woah 100psi on tap? you'd be blowing your toilets out :D I do run into it a lot though auctially where people do have 100psi on tap, but rarely and mostly in new neighborhoods.
 
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Atomizer

Well-Known Member
adjustable pressure reducers are cheap enough ;)
You could get the nutes into the water on the way to the accumulator by using a few chunks of hose and some valves. You`d need to do some trial and error on the EC and PH so you knew how much A and B nutes and ph up/down to add to the stream...all seperately of course. It might be worth the hassle if you used a decent sized accumulator.
 
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herbgro

Active Member
i thought doing this when i was getting parts, but then it crossed my mind if the line leaks somewhere you would have tons of water everywhere and if living in apartment your neighbours houses would flood too if you wouldnt be around when this happens.
i think most of factory lines still uses this method they controll it series of tanks and dosage pumps and valves and ro filters and support pumps to keep the pressure but the starting point is the city water pipe.
 
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Atomizer

Well-Known Member
So do i but if your city water is crap you can run it through an ro system before you inject the nutes. It`ll take longer to fill the accumulator but its the same deal.
 
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