New pump set enables more irrigation stations for golf course

Snapshot

• A country golf club in Victoria recently replaced its aging and undersized pump system with a new booster pump set complete with a jockey pump and surge/distribution panel.
• The course has gone from 6 stations to 24.
• The club can now irrigate more precisely and efficiently, resulting in lower running costs and better pressure and performance.

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Nestled among gum trees with a natural creek running through its centre, the Stawell Golf Club in Victoria boasts a rich history spanning over 120 years. However, the club faced modern challenges with an aging irrigation system that struggled to maintain adequate pressure and volume. This led to high running costs and excessive water use. The club recently upgraded its irrigation system to maintain its fairways and reduce operational costs.

Challenges with the old system

The existing pump unit had long struggled to deliver sufficient pressure and volume at the far end of the course. Despite experimenting with different sprinklers, the output remained insufficient and inconsistent.

Greens Chairman Ian Sibson explained, “The old pump was undersized, and we had a lot of different sprinklers here and there. Everything was irregular. You’d have five sprinklers going, and they’d pump out twice as much water as the next five.”

Sizing the correct solution

The club engaged Ultimate Pumps and Irrigation, in partnership with Brown Brothers Engineers Australia, to provide a pump set that would increase pressure and volume, be more efficient and give the club the ability to expand if they required to do so in the future.

The team sized a 66SV4/2 HPS Lowara Hydro-Pac Dual Booster pump set, complete with a 10SV09HPS jockey pump. The Hydro-Pac units effectively integrate the Lowara e-SV pumps with the Hydrovar VSD controller, mounted directly on each pump motor, providing an easy-to-use and energy-efficient water management system.

The jockey pump handles low flow demands and engages first to manage smaller flows. This is a cost-effective and energy-efficient way of irrigating, resulting in long-term savings for the club.

Additionally, an INCA surge/distribution panel was installed, providing protection for the drives in the event of a power surge.

The installation was completed within a day, limiting inconvenience to staff and players at the club.

Improved pressure and efficiency

With the upgraded system, the course went from six stations to 24, offering significant improvements in precision and water use efficiency. The old system's six stations covered large areas, resulting in uneven watering and generalised water application. Additionally, the old system's limited flexibility in managing different areas of the course made irrigation inaccurate and inefficient.

Ian said, “With the upgrade we can now water where we want, when we want. Instead of having to put all six stations on at once and watering somewhere we don’t need to water, we can now control each station on its own.”

The new pump system has significantly reduced running costs and improved pressure and performance across the sprinklers at all points of the course.

Ian says the new irrigation system maintains constant pressure, providing a better curtain of water. As a consequence, he can notice a big difference on the fairways with uniform grass coverage everywhere.

Looking ahead, Ian added, “In the future we’ll probably look at a new setup for our greens, as the new pump system is currently for the fairways only. We’ll likely consider a similar setup.”

[Article originally appeared in the Irrigation Australia Journal]