The Best Ways to Save on Your Sprinkler Systems Water Bill
Steve's Pressure Wash and Landscape (12/05/2008)
The most common waste of irrigation watering, plain and simple is when it goes down the street. The easiest way to prevent this is to have multiple start times on your sprinkler controller. (i.e) Instead of one long run time for all stations on your sprinkler controller, break it up into multiple start times, and this will allow the water to soak in much more effectively. If you have a sloped lawn, most soils here can only take 5-6 minutes of watering before run off occurs if pop-up sprinklers are used. And run off can occur within 15 minutes or less with rotors or impact rotors. So, for example, instead of having 20 minutes of continual run time, try three separate start times but only let them run for 5-6 minutes. Even on the high side of 6 minutes, you save two minutes a night just for that station alone. If you have a single run of 45 minutes on rotors, give 10-12 minutes on that station and three starts a night to save 9 minutes per night. Usually you can have better watering results, for fewer minutes of runtime.
When you do water, water heavy enough to saturate and allow for a dry-out period before the next watering! seriously. Because most all plant material thrive on a heavy watering, followed by a drying out period instead of a constant, nightly trickle. Deep watering builds deep roots and lessens potential problems for plant material. If you water heavy enough and saturate in one night, you can sometimes skip irrigation nights and only have to water 2-3 times a week, even when it is really hot.
Another very cost effective way to save money on water is with a rain/freeze click. These connect directly to your controller and shut it down when it rains heavy enough, or temperatures fall close to freezing. They have a remote control type (appr. $75.00) where no drilling is required, or the wired-in type (appr. $45.00) where you do need to run a wire. Both are cheap compared to the money they will save you. Most rain gauges are adjustable from 1/4″ of rain, to 3/4″ settings before they shut off the system, and the freeze click will shut down the controller at around 35 degrees to allow for any run-off before the water freezes. For home or business, not having a slick driveway, walks etc. is nice for the protection of yourself, and others. Not to mention they will save a whole night or two of watering if it rains hard, that alone could pay for itself in a night or two with large properties. You can adjust how quickly these units dry-out to allow the system to come back on again with an adjustable air vent.
Of course the most important thing to do is the periodical geyser check. Those expensive, but beautifully timed water fountains make great window washers as you drive by. A couple of sprinkler heads missing their nozzles, or a vehicle crush in the pipe, or poor glue job resulting in a separation can really add up to some big bucks over time. Usually when you have these breaks, that entire station will have poor distribution because all the pressure is going to that leak.
Most of today’s sprinkler systems are being installed with a master valve. If your system is equipped with a master valve, you may have a leak and not even know it for a long time. The reason for this is because a master valve is a “Valve, before all other Valves, The Master”. So there is no pressure on the entire system until the programmed time comes up, then the master valve and the station programmed come on, both at the same time. It is only at that time that the entire system has pressure on it, in the middle of the night, when nobody is awake…….water just a ripping down the street. Other drawbacks to having master valves are, for example. If station # 1 valve has a bad diaphragm, and runs continuously. You will not know it because the master valve is holding back pressure during the day. But at night, station #1 will come on as programmed and run its time, but it will also still be on when station #2,3,4,5 and so on, are on as well, because it is broke. When the diaphragm inside the valve goes out, it doesn’t matter if power is at the valve or not, it will run forever.
Another great way to save water, eliminate water damage to fences and decks, and eliminate black spot on roses, azaleas, and other tender vegetation is to consider converting stations over to drip irrigation. If you have plant beds that are completely separate from your turf, you can change them over from sprays and pop-ups to a highly efficient drip system that puts water nowhere but on the ground. You don’t even know these things are running they are so quiet. But in my opinion the best thing about having drip line in the beds, is that you can now easily tap into them driplines and add bubblers for potted plants almost anywhere.
Having a sprinkler system can be a real time saving, landscape-building tool if properly tuned and adjusted. It can also be a very costly, destructive device if neglected. Take the time to evaluate your system, draw a simple map of where each station waters and stick it to the wall by the controller. Any visual picture of your system will make it much easier to program than nothing at all. Adjust your controllers according to the weather, and play with the numbers to find the best run times, for the conditions at the time.
Read my article on How to Convert a Mostly Weedy Bermuda Lawn to 100% Turf in one Season D.I.Y.
