Water Usage, what is reasonable each month?

[capecodbob]

We won't be in the Villages till December to use the home we bought. Currently, we are only watering the lawn and the system was recently checked and the timing corrected. Last month we used 26,000 gallons with the system improperly set. About 1/2 month under the new system, we are still using 25,000 gallons/month! Yikes, this seems unreasonable.

We are not even there flushing toilets and taking showers.

Can people please comment on their usage and what seems like a reasonable amount?

Thanks,

Cape Cod Bob

[skyguy79]

25,000 gallons a month seems quite high to me. I just went over the last 10 months of bills to see if I could get an estimate on how many gallons were use to fill up our new swimming pool, and the highest figure we used was about 13,000 per month for irrigation. Our total on this last month including the pool fill was only 13,900 gallons with an estimate being 11,700 just for the pool fill.

Could it be that you're watering your lawn too frequently or for too long? Out of the last 3 months bills it shows that we had used 0 gallons on the first and the third months with 16,890 during the second month.

I hope my information helps you in some small way!

BTW, we got to use our new pool for the first time ever this afternoon! :MOJE_whot:

[juneroses]

That does seem like a lot. I have records of our water usage since January 2005 calculated on a per day basis (since the number of billing days differ from month to month). My August bill was for 32 days so I took your 25,000 gallons and also divided by 32. That puts your daily usage at 781 gallons.

There are a couple of months in our history where our daily usage nearly matched yours - keeping the garden alive in the beastly heat of May and June 2011, for example. Otherwise our usage is about 450 gallons/month.

Two of us live here full-time so our usage includes the water requirements of ordinary daily living. I think our lot is "average" - the Marion County Tax Man says its .19 acres. I do enjoy gardening and want to keep the flowers, etc. looking good but try to conserve and water on an as needed basis.

On the Hunter controller for our sprinkler system, one has the ability to set multiple programs. The numbers are small and it's easy to unintentionally have more than one program set.

Maybe it's one of these extra programs that is playing havoc with your usage.

[chuckinca]

Should be no irrigation usage in the summer - it rained nearly every day.


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[laceylady]

We had the same issue. Our house closed 6/22. It is a new build so for the 1st month we were told to water 7 days a week for 40 min. Each time. The bill for about 10 days was for 17,000+ gal. We had our home watch lady change it to three days a week at 40 min. Each. The bill for that mo.---part 7 days and part 3 days was way high--39,180 gal. The third bill was high also about 19,000 gal. I asked a landscaper to go over to the house and do a landscape estimate and he said the grass was yellowish and we should only water 2days a week for 15 minutes every time. The caretaker just changed to this last week so we will see what the next bill is. These 1st three bills are for lawn water only.

I called home warranty and they sent Tri-county over (they installed the system) and they told our caretaker that they have disabled the 3 diff. Cycle settings because too many people were having high water bills.

Our electric bill has gone down each month with running the sprinklers less. It was only $30 this past mo.Zombie bees reported in Kent, first in Washington - Northwest - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington news, weather and sports (http://www.theolympian.com/2012/09/24/2262580/zombie-bees-reported-in-kent-first.html)

[Phanatic Luvr]

I believe by reading your post, that no one is occupying your home and the water bill is pretty much ALL irrigation. You also don't mention how much lawn you have which before anyone should respond, would need to know. There are all types of homes here in The Villages and irrigation water consumption can vary drastically. Example, we don't know if you own a villa, designer or premiere home. Here's how to figure out approx. how many sq. ft. your lawn area is ... go to Sumter County Property Appraiser - Ronnie Hawkins, CFA - Bushnell, Florida - 352-569-6800 - (http://www.sumterpa.com) (Sumter County Property Appraiser website), click onto Record Search, enter your Street Address, and at the bottom click Run Search. Now, scroll down and see how many sq. ft. is listed under Land Unit and then minus what the Effective Area (this is your total building size) says. Ex... mine says 13,068 sq. ft. - 2,528 would = about 10,540 I am irrigating.
Depending on what your irrigation is set at, and it is my opinion to water 2x per week for shorter periods of time (maybe 20 to 30 minutes for shrubs and 40 to 50 minutes for lawn) than to water 1x per week for long periods since there will be a lot of run off and wasted water.
You should also take into consideration if your lawn gets DIRECT sun ALL day or if there are homes around you which provide shade to your lawn for X amount of hours per day.
If your home is a new home, your rain sensor should be working also as long as whoever is taking care of your property in your absence, has it set to Active and NOT Bypass.
So ... with all that taken into consideration, you now can start to determine if you are using the appropriate amount of water or not.
I have also sent you a PM with more details.
Hope this helped.

[mulligan]

Also, if your lawn is yellow, there's a chance it's fungus. Have your lawn guy check.

[asianthree]

the first month our bill was high but what was used before we closed was on it

[Penguin]

I also had the same problem not being in the home for 6 months and I'm still trying to get everything set right. Either I'm using too much water or there's a fungus or its too dry. Its very frustrating and my lawn people either dont care or are too busy too keep me informed on the progress of my lawn. My neighbors were the ones letting me know how my lawn was doing so I could call the lawn company and try to rectify the situation, after I had crazy water bills I arranged for the lawn company to send a rep to readjust the sprinkler system. Bottom line is its real hard when your not there to stay on top of those kinds of things. I found that having someone being able to access your home and calling the poeple you hired to service your lawn is the only way to stay up on this. At one point I was on the phone every other day calling everyone I could think of.

[capecodbob]

Thanks for all your inciteful comments! What a lot of information. It is most appreciated.

From your comments, it is obvious that we have a problem. We are going to call the water company tomorrow and have them go to the house to see if there is problem with the meter or a leak. Obviously, if the meter is running with the sprinkler system off and no one in the house, there is a leak somewhere. Has anyone had or heard of a problem w/ the pipes running in the slab foundation into the house?

We do have someone looking after the house. They let the guy in to reset the sprinkler system. He said that the rain checking system was working.

Hopefully, we will have an answer tomorrow. It is most frustrating not being down there to handle things!

[mulligan]

fyi- the pipes are buried under the slab, not in it

[jgbama]

We won't be in the Villages till December to use the home we bought. Currently, we are only watering the lawn and the system was recently checked and the timing corrected. Last month we used 26,000 gallons with the system improperly set. About 1/2 month under the new system, we are still using 25,000 gallons/month! Yikes, this seems unreasonable.

We are not even there flushing toilets and taking showers.

Can people please comment on their usage and what seems like a reasonable amount?

Thanks,

Cape Cod Bob

We just moved in September 18th. The house was vacant since August 1st. Got the water bill this week and used 28,000+ gallons! Called and the lady helped me check my sprinkler system (the culprit). The yard stations were set at 60 minutes and the shrub zones were set to 30 minutes. Apparently it was set to run two days at 1:00AM!! She suggested setting the times to around 5:00AM. I also backed the 60-minute zones to 40 minutes and the 30-minute zones to 15-minutes. I hope next month won't be a shocker. We need to buy furniture, not a water plant! :rant-rave: :jester:

[Down Sized]

:pepper2:I also had the same problem not being in the home for 6 months and I'm still trying to get everything set right. Either I'm using too much water or there's a fungus or its too dry. Its very frustrating and my lawn people either dont care or are too busy too keep me informed on the progress of my lawn. My neighbors were the ones letting me know how my lawn was doing so I could call the lawn company and try to rectify the situation, after I had crazy water bills I arranged for the lawn company to send a rep to readjust the sprinkler system. Bottom line is its real hard when your not there to stay on top of those kinds of things. I found that having someone being able to access your home and calling the poeple you hired to service your lawn is the only way to stay up on this. At one point I was on the phone every other day calling everyone I could think of.

That's why I didn't buy a house in T V until my house was sold and I could live here full time. Possibility of too many problems and too far away. How do you spell HASSLE?