Ownership at Stillmeadow Country Club has made another large investment toward the promising future of our club. This investment was a much needed one that most members would think is in a very unlikely location. The location for this major improvement is the pump house. The pump house is a small building between holes number one and nine that is of no cosmetic interest to the golf course. However, it is what is inside that counts. Inside the pump house are two pumps that supply all of the water used for irrigation to the golf course. These pumps can be controlled in a variety of different ways and some ways are better than others. Our old control system was a Cla-Valve. A Cla-Valve is a mechanical device used for pressure regulation and pump staging. We found this device to be unreliable and a maintenance hassle. One of our pumps didn't even flow through the Cla-Valve because of a faulty design plan. Another result of this was that our pumps were staged on and off by pressure readings from the course piping and not the Cla-Valve. The old control system had no safeties for automatic shut down when there is a low pressure or high pressure event in the system. The bottom line is that the old pump station controls were outdated. On piping that is as old and weak as our system, we needed new and more gentle controls to protect our water lines. Here are some photos of our pump station prior to our retro project.
Now to the new controls. We have installed an Oasis panel and two variable frequency drives. These devices are used for a variety of different functions when it comes to pump controls. However, the main function of these devices is to always speed up and slow down the pumps and the flow of water to the irrigation system based from the demand of that same system. The pumps used to run all or nothing. Now the pumps only run at a speed that is required by the demand. This means less water hammer and slower water velocities to us. The goal is, this means less busted pipes and water holes on the golf course to you. Here are some photos of the finished product. You will notice that we have been able remove many of the old components for a much cleaner look.
