Irrigation Thought 101:

May:

Question: In order to irrigate one acre of land with 1" of water, how much water do you need?

Answer: Roughly 27,154.3 gallons of water to achieve the equivalent of 1 inch of water on one acre of land. Now, granted the average home in this area is sitting on a half acre of land minus the home, patio, driveway and other things. But it gives you an idea of how many 1,000’s of gallons of water can be saved a week by someone whom is water smart.

Automatic Lawn Sprinklers (Irrigation) is a great tool in keeping your lawn or garden in peak condition. In April I talked about some basic watering concepts. I would like to continue with going over different types of sprinkler heads. The two most common types of sprinkler heads are the spray and rotor. The spray head is design for smaller areas of 17ft or smaller, such as tree lawns, side of driveways or homes and flowerbeds. The spray head puts out a fan of water and can saturate a small area in a short period of time. Turf rotors are design for the larger areas and when operating the pattern is a stream of water and the head will oscillate back and forth to the desired pattern. Since the turf rotor and spray head distribute water at different rates (sprays distribute water at a higher rate) you do not want a spray and rotor type head on the same zone. If you do have sprays and rotors on the same zone and notice a heavier saturation in the area of the spray heads they do have new technology that can help solve this problem (MP rotator or Rain Bird Rotary nozzle) the new technology distributes the water at a slower rate and will closer match the precipitation rates of turf rotors. This new technology may also be helpful for a homeowner that may have a zone of sprays with some of them in full sun and some in a shaded area. By using this technology on the shaded area you will allow the heads in full sun to put down more water then the area in shade. If you have a similar problem with a zone of turf rotors, you can just down size the nozzles on the heads in the shaded area to reduce the amount of water. The best irrigation system is one that nobody even realizes is there, besides seeing the lush lawn. Submit any questions to Bob: info@rilawnsprinklers.com

Basic Watering 101: It's Time to Stop wasting water, Lower Your Bills Today

Hello,

Why do we choose to live in Ohio? The weather right? Yeah right, I think that most people just like to challenge themselves to see how long they can take the grey weather. The good news is that it looks like we made it through another winter, the weather will be improving here shortly. Or at least we hope! When your work is seasonal there are ups and downs that come with the off-season. Sure it's nice when you can relax and not have to wake up a 5am everyday, but that really only lasts for 3 weeks or so then you have to start working again. We sit down with all of the employees and review what went good and what went bad during the last season. From there we look at possible improvements and how to implement them. The future is now with watering bills for a summer NEEDS to become educated on how to effectively water their lawn. I can not stress enough how wasteful the average person waters. For example based on historical data our general area on average requires the following monthly irrigation inches. April: .95inch, May: 2.6inch, June: 4.21inch, July: 4.92, August: 4.67, September: 3.08, October: .41. If you make a graph out of those numbers it will resemble a mix between an upside down smile and a roller coaster. My point is our watering requirements are minimal in April & October; Low in May and September; High in June, July and August. But since clients rarely take the time to learn and understand their irrigation controller a program maybe the same in April and May as it is in August. So that means you way over watered until the middle of the summer or you under watered in the middle of the summer depending on what that initial program consisted of. Irrigation systems are automatic BUT that does not mean that your conventional timer knows what the weather conditions are, and rain sensor are not the preconceived savor that some may believe. There is a multitude of new technology currently on the market with price points to fit just about any budget. You just have to keep in mind that its going to cost money to save money, but as long as the cost are justified within a year or two then there is no reason not to implement the improvements. Water costs are projected to rise 30% in the next few years. Here are some actual accounts with the new technology on the market that I have had with existing clients.

Client #1: We installed a timer that would program itself based on the local weather conditions. The system was installed in the spring and in August the customer calls and said there was something wrong with his system and that he did not think that it was working at all. Well his concern got my attention real quick, I had thought that maybe the new technology was not working. So the first question that I had asked the client was “Is your grass green?” His answer: Yes. Well Mr. “x” if your grass is green in this kind of heat wave why do you think that something is wrong? His reply: My neighbors system goes off every morning at 9am and mine never runs. I actually did not respond right away since I wanted to make sure that I understood everything he told me. Then I told him to relax since the new technology programs itself that it only waters when necessary. I then mentioned to him to give me a call if his grass starts to brown out, but other then that to realize that for every time his neighbors system goes off while his system is idle that he is saving 2,340 gallons of water. BTW: Never Start Your Irrigation System at 9am during the month of August and unless your watering window does not give you an option, don’t water on a daily basis. Check out my watering tips .
Client #2: We installed a new timer that programmed itself based on local weather conditions, this device did require a subscription service: After the first year we showed that it saved the customer $230 during the watering season. The next year the customer did not want to pay the $98 for the subscription for the service. They just wanted to water like a conventional system. To this day I never got the reasoning: No I don’t want to spend $98 to save $230??