Hi, I'm like to be able to remotely/automatically control 2 water valves. I have 2 faucets outside of my home (in front and in the back) and I'd like to be able to set a schedule to water my grass for when I put new grass seeds. I only need to water 30 minutes per day during 14 days per year, so I do not want to install permanent sprinklers for that. When it is watering time, I just run a hose and lay down an oscillating watering thingy (two actually, one in front and one in back). I am NOT considering using one of the various sprinkler systems. If you must know, here is why: 1- I live in a place where there is a lot of snow during the winter and it can become very cold. Too many "4 season products" are designed "in California" where people don't fully grasp the concept of 4 seasons (Hello Ring Doorbell! It's rated only to work up to -20 Celcius..!) so I want to avoid putting electronics outside where it will inevitably fail after the warranty runs out. 2- Power and water are far away so I'd have to run conduits along the wall - I don't want that. 3- This is a town house, I want to avoid the clutter of a gray box, everything must be invisible. 4- I already have a lot of my home automated with the mFi line of products, which I control (and set schedules) with my computer, I'd like to piggy back on that. 5- Theft of expensive systems could be a problem if they are outside. 6- My project sounds more fun :). This being said, my idea is to put a valve directly on the 1/2" pex pipe that goes outside. For the back of my home, that's quite easy since the pipe is forked from the cold water in my kitchen sink cabinet and goes directly outside from there. I could cut the pex there, install the valve, and run a control wire to my mechanical room where I want to centralize the control. In that cabinet I have access to 120VAC (from my garburator) if required for the valve. For the front of the house, it is a bit tricky. In the attached picture (but everything has since been sealed off) you can see the branch on the left T does a loop and then goes outside (on the left). [ATTACH]66782[/ATTACH] Obviously, I don't want to leave a valve in the ceiling unattended, so my idea would be to cut the left branch and cap it properly, then connect the looped pipe to another pipe that I would fish to my mechanical room (about 25 feet away on the same floor) and then hook it up to the cold pipe of my water heater. This way, I could install the valve at the junction with the water heater; it would always be visible/accessible, I have access to electricity, and my mFi mPort could control the valve (it has 5v, 12, 24v outputs) from the same room. The mPort would also control the other valve, although as I explained that other valve would be located outside the mechanical room. It is important to note that on the other end of the valves are my outdoor faucets. 99.9% of of the time the faucets will be turned off, so I will not be relying on the valve cut off the water. The valve will only be used 2 weeks during the year (at which time I'll leave the faucets turned on). Obviously this is for a residential setup (around 60 psi pressure?). I'd like find a valve in the 20-30$ price range... definitely not above 100$ each. for the control, I can supply 5VDC, 12VDC or 24VDC (140mA max however, unless I add a relay). I think a motorized valve will be more expensive than the solenoid, right? But I'm told the solenoid might introduce a hammering noise (which isn't the end of the world, but would prefer to avoid). Any suggestion on the valve to use? Are the ideas I'm throwing above potentially problematic (branching from the water heater? fishing a pex pipe in the ceiling without properly attaching it to the beams?). Thanks for the suggestions.

I can't find a dataplate on my late 50's Tappan range so I don't know the total BTUs it uses. Is there a "rule of thumb" for sizing black gas pipe for a range? It's a standard 4-burner + oven. I need to locate it a total of 50 feet from the meter. A 100KBTU boiler and a standard (50K?) 40-gal water heater are the only taps now or planned, currently on 3/4" from the meter and within 10 feet from the entry into the basement.