Excessive irrigation water usage?
 

I just purchased a house in the Villages and have not moved in yet. The sprinklers were on according to the prior owner's settings (and lawn crew said the lan was not getting enough water). I got my first month's water bill and was shocked by the usage - over 39,000 gallons. We have a large lot (pie shaped 150' x 131' x 110') so I know usage will be on the higher side but is this a reasonable "gallons per month"?

Unreasonable, you should be 18,000 or less.

Previous guy must have been overwatering or there is a leak or irrigation head broken.

Get more info. Look up historical water usage online at districtgov.org
You can query your address and see bills from the previous owner's account, and neighbors' usage too.
Can you (or a friend) turn them on and visually inspect for a broken head - dumping a lot of water in one place.
Are you in the newer area where irrigation is metered separately from potable (drinking) water?
What are the irrigation controller zone run times, and watering days?

That's too much water.

Prior owner may have beefed up the water for better curb appeal.

A Flume will let you monitor irrigation remotely.

Flume Water | Smart Home Water Monitor | Water Leak Detector

Since we do not have a conventional water meter........does this unit work in The Villages???

I believe my system will put down about 600 gals per hour. If I run the system 1.5 hours per day and two days per week then that’s eight days per month, 12 hours of watering, and 7,200 gals on my bill.

Assuming all systems use about the same amount of water per hour, your 39,000 gals would mean 65 hours of watering. That seems like a tremendous amount.

As others have suggested, you should look for a broken head. Run the system manually and look for a geyser.

The Flume product is compatible with about 95% of water meters in the United States today. Works South of 44.

However, if your meter box fills with water, it will not work.

Is the Flume device compatible with all water meters? | Flume Help Center

Is it possible that bill is for 2 months? I know Duke made me pay a deposit when I first moved to TV. I forget about the water bill, but maybe you had to pay for an extra month?...

We have a corner lot and average between 15,000 - 22,000 per month depending on the weather.

My house is in DeLuna. My irrigation bill doubled last month. My heads are fine. I assumed I was just watering too much so I dialed it back. Total cost increase was $18. Hmmmm, maybe I should look into that. I kinda let it go since rain has finally been bestowed to us. I also thought I would see how it does this month by cutting time in half.

Without knowing how many Days per week, how many minutes per Stage, and is your house on the same meter , my answer would be a guess rather than a suggestion… but I agree with Mr. Wilson…. STREET APPEAL

A WiFi irrigation controller like b-Hyve can be set to automatically delay watering based on rain. Very easy to setup and adjust from your phone.

Smart Watering, Irrigation & Sprinkler Systems
– OrbitOnline

Call Austin White at Artisan Outdoor Living.
License #: SCC 131152788 9294 US-301
Wildwood, FL 34785
(352) 617-3444 artisanoutdoors.com austin@artisanoutdoors.com

He’s very well trained and does outstanding work. I moved into a house with your problem. He found two broken off sprinkler heads squirting out large amounts of water. He also found that my automatic system was set up to water for thirty minutes a day every day. In a courtyard villa. After reviewing my landscaping, he cut that back to 5 minutes twice a week in the back and ten minutes three times a week in the front. My irrigation water use dropped from 37,000 gallons to 5,000. He also cleaned out the control boxes and put in silicone shielded wire nuts that meet code and are less likely to short out if we get a lot of rain and wiring that will turn off the system if a leak is sensed.

Irrigation
 

You must have a leak or your sprinklers are running way too long

We definitely paid for almost two months on our first bill due to the closing date of the sale vs the billing date for the property. So do be sure you check the actual usage days on that first bill.

We have a larger corner lot but not as large as yours. The last two months, being extremely dry, we used right at 20,000 gallons for irrigation. By comparison, in Dec, we used less than 10,000 gallons.

We had the same issue this past couple of months, my brother who is a plumber went and checked it out, and found out one of the toilets were running constantly that we were not a ware of and reset the sprinkler system timing, dropped water usage down from just over 32,000. down to 19,000 hopefully next month will be even better. So have someone check for running water inside your home, such as toilets, and take a look at your sprinkler timer and adjust accordingly.

Sprinkler system concern
 

I found this fellow named Brian who has his own sprinkler system business. Great guy! Have him check your system. Does not oversell, upsell, and explains what’s up with your system. Very reasonable. I used him several times over the last 18 months

His number is:

(352) 516-3041

Called the water department with a usage concern. Have a wedge lot as well. Very nice lady plugged details of the lot size into some type of water usage calculator & told me what is ‘normal’ for our lot. Just a suggestion for you!!

Do you have Zoysia grass or St. Augustine? Zoysia doesn't like a lot of water. Cut times down and water three times a week. If you are full time resident, cut system off during rainy season. St. Augustine is a weed - terrible lawn cover.

It’s possible. With the drought this spring, and regular rains only just starting, most people I know had to go to watering 3x a week just to keep their grass alive. We have a small lot but filled with new landscaping that has to be watered everyday the first two months to get it established. We used just under 10,000 gallons. Sounds like your grass area is 3x the size, so 30,000 is possible, but turn on your sprinklers and watch for a broken head just in case. My neighbor runs their irrigation a little less than us, and their statement showed using 79,000 gallons. They have no broken heads, or lines. Sounds like an error in the reading of the meter, since it’s done remotely.

out of curiosity what does 39000 gallons equate to Dollars?

$104, assuming it is not potable water.

Irrigation
 

When it is raining on a regular basis, irrigation usage will go down. Seems like the rainy season has begun.

There are a lot of factors regarding water usage in TV, mostly sun exposure, foliage vs grassed areas, type of grass, time of day sprinklers are on, amount and timing of fertilizer. etc We have a heavily shaded lot with St. Augustine grass and run ours every other day 15 minutes per zone in the grassy areas and 10 minutes every other day in the foliage area.Yard is great. In summer months we turn irrigation off and yard is great. Looks like we are now in rainy season.

Agree, 39,000 gallons is excessive.
 

Agree with those that indicate this is too much water usage. When we moved to TV we were getting usage like you indicated on a larger corner lot. I switched to WiFi controller, we use the Rachio controller, and it has significantly changed average usage with no discernable change in the look of the lawn. Our highest usage this year was in March (no rain for months) and we used 14,000. I highly recommend Rachio or bHyve type of controller. Plus you can control it from anywhere with your phone.

Should also mention that the Rachio controller can be connected to a Tempest weather station to provide specific rainfall at your location instead of using an aggregation of info from nearby stations. My tempest station works great with the Rachio. If interested, the Tempest weather station is also available on the Rachio website.

Good luck

its like 4 small swimming pools filled per month

It’s not normal.

My mowing guy, clipped the head off of one of my sprinklers and never told me. Sometime later, i manually ran the sprinkler heads (i do this every few months or so). The sprinkler with no head was spouting a 15 foot geyser in my back yard.

It is worth running a manual irrigation cycle occassionally.

Curious, both systems are based on forecasts? I read often times the rain misses our area, and the sprinklers are automatically turned off. Is that true?

For the b-Hyve, based on forecasts and local weather stations. You can set the trigger point. E.g. 80% probability of .25" or more rain.

But this is Florida and rainfall can be spotty. I probably set more manual delays than the forecast.

With Rachio, you have the option of using a rain sensor or rainfall data from a network of reporting stations. This data goes into a soil model to determine when to irrigate next. Regarding your specific question, it will also look at forecasted precipitation as part of the calculation to determine whether to irrigate or not. The decision to irrigate or not is made on a daily basis. Both the observed precipitation and the forecasted precipitation are part of the calculation as to whether to irrigate or not. Since there can be considerable variation in warm season precipitation, it is certainly possible that precipitation measured by the network of reporting stations is not applicable to your location. However, over time, this should average out. Using your own rain gauge will minimize this effect. The same thing applies for the forecasted precipitation. I have not seen any issues in either regard with my Rachio. I use the network of reporting stations instead of a rain gauge. One of the nice features of the Rachio (and all Wi-Fi controllers) is the ability to turn zones on and off from your cellphone. This is really handy when checking your irrigation heads as you don't need to keep walking back and forth to the controller in the garage.

What you need to do is to watch your water meter to see if it moves when everything is shutoff. Then you need to check every zone to see if you have broken heads or a line leak. Maybe you have some areas that are really soaked/mushy and that could be a line leaking underneath. Or you are just running your zones too long and/or too often. You only need an inch of water a week on your lawn

Terrible or not, it’s what all of the homes south of 44 have. We removed all of it from our backyard, and will remove up to what’s allowed by ARC in the front yard. Hate it!

I think your usage is too high, my May bill indicated I used 4800 gallons and I have an average inside sized lot. I monitor irrigation myself and with the dry spring I did the odd extra watering, that was included in the bill. Your lot is unlikely to be twice the size of my lot so I feel that your bill is too much water. Summer is high heat I will increase my irrigation by 1 day per week, that is 30%. I did have all my sprinklers and pressure checked and set by ACI irrigation. Didn’t like the coverage of some sprinkler heads so they taught me how to set the heads myself. I checked a couple of times and adjusted the heads to get the water to the areas I wanted. So far, all is good. Mow my own grass but have other services by providers.
And for retired guy, ACI is good and come back till your satisfied, but, they are not cheap.

High water bill due to irrigation.
 

I had an issue after purchasing a used home which had been vacant, and his family member was readying the property for sale. It took me 2 months before i really looked with concern, and contacted District to see what the history had been. I learned it had been high for several months prior to the sale. As it turned out, with the help of a neighbor (you could have a service too), each zone was set under a new program 2x a week. Thus, irrigation was running 3 programs x 5 zones, 2x a week. Good luck.

You got off easy. Same situation for us, we closed on a resale home last June with a very similar sized pie shaped lot and our first bill they charged me for 82,400 gallons of irrigation use water. I went round and round with them about it. At first they claimed I must have a toilet running until I pointed out it was irrigation water, then they said I must have a broken sprinkler pipe. Had Massey check the system and all was good. I had them do a flow test on the meter and they said no issues with that either. I got stuck with a huge bill for that month! Then strangely my bill for August when I was watering a lot my bill was for 290 gallons which I know wasn't right either. Other than those two all the other bills have been fairly consistent.

Many of the sprinkler controllers have a test function. You tell it how many minutes per zone, then it steps through all the zones. I have 4 zones and it goes 1, 2, 3, 4 for 3 minutes each. I can easily walk the property, look for broken or misaligned heads. Don't forget to reset the controller back to run, when done. Good luck.

I hate to pay some water bill. I see lawn/bushes watered for about 15 mins, then the other 30 minutes water runs down street to drain. Especially in CYV with Rock yards.