Water Flow

I had Jenna help me with a little test today. The question was, "How much water flows through the hose when different numbers of barrels are engaged?" I took a quart canning jar out and, when I started filling the jar, Jenna started the stop watch on her cell phone. She timed until the jar was full. Here are the results.

Hoses Opened	1	2	4	8
Seconds to Fill a Quart Jar	17	14	14	14
Gallons per Minute out the Hose	0.88	1.07	1.07	1.07
Gallons per Minute per Barrel	0.88	0.54	0.27	0.13

It is clear that the second input adds a bit to the overall flow of the hose, about 20%. However, above the second hose, there is no benefit to flow into the garden. Having 4 or 8 barrels feeding the water did not yield an increase. At the same time, adding more barrels did decrease the per barrel flow to the Y connector.

My conclusion is that I will get the best results from using two barrels at a time, perhaps for multiple rounds or at least until they have been significantly depleted. Then switching to different barrels on a subsequent round. After a round is completed, I plan to open all the lines so that the emptied barrels can refill, further helping keep the hoses clean of junk.

Looking at the barrels, I saw that my water from the air conditioner had turned yellow. I disconnected it. Something must be growing in that hose as well. Probably due to the fact that it has to travel uphill a bit to get to the point where it is disgorged into the master barrel.