Quote:
Originally Posted by TomSpasm
An amazing amount of misinformation here, including the Fertigator people, who I just fired over this issue, and even Mr. Helpful surprisingly. The rules for running your sprinklers are clear, your address has two specific days and times that the sprinklers should run. If everyone just ignores them, we have the potential to imperil our water supply.
The days and times to water are based on what district you are in (I believe Lake Denham is in District 14), and your lot #. That is not your address it is a number on your Villages ID at the end of U/L line. That will give you the table, District 14 is linked below, that tells you what days and time is your time to run your sprinklers.
https://www.thevillageswaterwisdom.c...1c6110a398.pdf
Yes it has been dry, and twice a week under these conditions will cause local brown areas that don't receive enough water. Those can be hand watered, but that's difficult from out of town. It is forecast to rain 4 of the next 10 days, so this issue is about to be resolved for everyone by Mother Nature. |
If you notice on the sticker, it says "
Recommended". It does not say this is a
Rule. The info on the sticker is possibly a good starting point for those that may have never had a sprinkler system.
The stickers have bad info. For May, mine says 40min/zone, 1/wk and start at 7 AM. I have 6 zones. 6 zones times 40 minutes is 240 minutes or 4 hours. This would put my watering ending at 11 AM. Per your link (
Irrigation Schedules for VCDD 14) at the bottom it says that Irrigation after 10 a.m. and before 4 p.m. is prohibited. Thus I
would be in violation. You mention twice a week in your comment above. Does your sticker say 2/wk?
Hand watering is not an option for me. For one, it would require me to take the time to do it and move sprinklers. Why would I do that when I have an irrigation system? Secondly, I would have to use potable water which to me would be wasteful. Here in the south part of the villages, we irrigate with reclaimed pond water. This water came from rain (and some from the runoff of watered yards). By removing it from the ponds and putting it on yards, we are utilizing it naturally. If not collected and recycled, it would have been "wasted" since it would have percolated into the soil and eventually found its way back to the aquifer when it rained. We just borrowed it temporarily.
I've actually performed the calculation to determine how much yard area I have. Based on my lot and removing the area of the house, garage, lanai, front porch, sidewalk & driveway, I have 8841 sq ft. of grass & landscaping. Looking at the formula at the bottom of the page here
How much is enough, I get 8841 x 28.3 X 0.05194 = 12,995.4 gallons which is the amount I could be using per month on average. I've averaged 7,583 gallons between Jan and April. Yes I keep a spreadsheet of my usage every month.
With the Rachio being a smart controller, I'm hoping to be below the average amount for 2024 and still have a great looking yard.