My sump generates a lot of output during some weeks. Enough that I need a better plan than dumping into the grass and gravel driveway downslope from the house. My first step in improving my driveway is calculating the amount of water I am dumping into it. What is the easiest way to measure? The 2 inch discharge pipe is about 18 inches off the ground. I guess I could dump the water into a kiddy pool and measure the amount of water in it after a 24 hour period. That leaves me with a kiddy pool I'd have to throw away in a month. I would prefer a method that allows me to measure into the future.
Is there a simple flow meter for a 2 inch pipe that will measure the amount of water flowing through it? I have found some, but they appear to be industrial grade and industrial priced.
I could estimate the volume of water discharged when the sump cycles on, and then count the number of times the sump runs. But how would I count the number of cycles?
Best Answer
Time how long it takes to fill a 1 gallon bucket, then divide that time into a minute, that gives you GPM; Gallons Per Minute, a standardized flow rate. So for example if, while it is fully flowing, you put the bucket in the stream, someone else starts a stopwatch and you see that it takes 6 seconds to fill the bucket, 60 seconds / 6 seconds = 10 GPM.
Then if you want, get what's called an "elapsed time meter" that works on the same voltage as your pump, and wire it in parallel with the pump so that it records how long the pump runs. Multiply that run time (in minutes) during a time period by the flow rate to get a larger averaged flow over that time period, i.e. per hour or per day or per week to make it more useful for deciding what you want to do with it. So for example if, during a given week, the sump pump ran for 3.2 hours, that is 192 minutes, x 10GPM = 1920 gallons per week that you need to figure out how to safely dispose of.