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Quoted from "MCROWNOVER"

What I mean to say is...

Is there a pre-existing product available that can control the flow of water into an irrigation system with the use of a thermostat?

No, there isn't, per se. Irrigation is not a temperature-driven quantity. It is driven by soil moisture requirements.

they do make a tempeture sensor to stop the water from flowing if it is too cold outside, but not the water tempeture. Hope this helps.




www.irrigationsolutions.com

It sounds like you are talking about wanting to vary the amount of water based on temperature (basically, water more in the heat of the summer, but water less in the cool of spring and fall).

The fundimental issue with that is going to be the fact that the way general purpose irrigation sensors are going to work is that the prevent the system from running when some given condition exists. All of these sensors basically get installed inline with the common wire running to all of the valves. In the case of a rain sensor, the sensor basically opens a switch when there is water in the sensor. So even if the irrigation system turns 'ON', the sensor overrides that and keeps it turned off. Same thing with wind, soil moisture, and temperature sensors. All of these sensors effectively break the common wire when it's too windy, the soil already has enough moisture, or the temperature is too cold.

To automatically vary the amount of water based on air temperature, you would need a special controller that has a dedicated temperature sensor (or perhaps connected to the internet where it can download weather forcasts) and has been programmed to automatically make the adjustments based on weather conditions.

Otherwise, the closest thing you will find is the soil moisture sensor. As I said, they basically prevent the irrigation system from running when ever the soil already has enough moisture.

This is a new product that I just installed. It does not reduce the flow, but it does adjust the minutes on the irrigation schedule. You set it based on July 31 minutes on the schedule (Worst case scenario), and it adjust for temperature. It also uses rain sensor, temperature gauge, freeze gauge, and ET data based on past temperatures for your region. It is fairly inexpensive retail 100ish. It will only work with the hunter Pro-C, and ICC, or better.

Check it out.

I have installed only 1, and I am curious to see the result.

Dan