SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Rainbird is correct in asking you for for the service line size, type and length. I don't think you
understand that the service line generally is the line that goes from the street to the meter
input side. This is all necessary in design calculations.Also, you can measure your static at a hose bib.
Not necessary to make special meter modifications to do this. Why a 1" meter. What do you expect your
flow to be?

You can get the PSI off of your house, just attach a pressure gauge to your hose bib. All you will need is a 3/4 GHT (Garden hose Thread) female adapter to 3/4 FPT (Female Pipe Thread).

Then a reducer from 3/4 to 1/4, most pressure gauges are 1/4.

Rainbird should be able to calculate the flow based on PSI and service size. For example, you know you have 45 psi and the service is 1"

I do not remember the exact calculation, but I would guess somewhere around 20 GPM.

If you are feeding a sprinkler system directly from a curbside water meter, you do not really have a service line, so far as a sprinkler system is concerned.

For the parts of the US where all water meters are in curbside pits, and a sprinkler system will be supplied from the house plumbing, then the water line from the house back to the meter near the street becomes the service line that needs to be described. For a house that is very far from the street, it may be fed from a service line that is larger than the size of the water meter, because oversizing the line reduces pressure loss.

If you want to beat this line of thought to death, then you would want to know just how far from your curb is the water main. To that distance, add the distance from the curb to your meter pit, and you now have the distance from the water main to your sprinkler system supply point.

And once more, this is all a waste of mental energy, when it is within your power to perform a "bucket test" after the new meter is put into service.

You could simply give them the results of your bucket test, and see if that's enough. Or, you could make up an imaginary supply of a 3/4-inch meter fed by 30 feet of 3/4-inch copper tubing. Whatever their process will make of a theoretical smaller supply should work for what you eventually have installed.