Irrigation leak?
 

We’re new homeowners here and looking at our water bill. I’m only watering 50 minutes total between the three zones 3 times a week. Does the 5000 gallons seem too high? It does to me since I’m only using a little more than half of that for my potable water. How can I check this? Thanks.

You may be watering too much.


Irrigation Schedules - The Villages Community Development Districts

The amount of water use looks reasonable, but most people only water two times per week. Also, if you have grass, that zone should be watered about two times as long as the shrub areas. You can try it and see if your lawn still looks okay. I don't think you have a leak.

It IS hard to look at an irrigation bill as a newbie and believe you’re using 5, 10 or 15 K of water each month but that is about right for three times a week. Consider a smart controller with WiFi and it will take into consideration the upcoming weather in addition to your smart wick. Example with a smart controller if your watering 3 times a week and the weather calls for rain in the upcoming week it will hold some or all of your irrigation and further reduce water consumption.

IMO no, need look at street when watering? Do you see water running down street 10 mins or more each zone? If so you either watering too much or you’re watering street. My water bill runs between 3800 and 4800. And I don’t run irrigation unless need to, when I do it’s done manually not regularly. I don’t have grass so I just have to water bushes and plants. This is hottest time of year May through September. IMO if you’re water grass be lucky under 7000 gallons or more month.

If you’re for underground leak should be signs of wetness?

A rough calculation says my irrigation system consumes 9gals/min.

50 mins/day * 3 days/wk * 4wks/month * 9gals/min = 5,400 gals/month

Your 5,000 gals is pretty darn close to that.

We use about 1,000 gals/month of potable water for two of us.

A controller with wifi that can use local weather stations to disable watering when rain is forecast will help you to save some water/money.

Get to know your system. Check how much usage per zone/ten minute cycle. Map your sprinkling heads and make sure all are working properly. Check for sprinklers covered by grass or broken. Ie make sure they are performing and aimed correctly.

If your system does not automatically stop running when we have adequate rain, either get that fixed or shut it down manually. At this time of year. you can sometimes go several weeks without watering due to our frequent showers.

Learn how to tell to read the lawns need for water by appearance. Some zones need more than others, size, shade, content (Grass, shrubs, trees}

Best to ask your neighbors of similar size lawns. But count on a hundred or so bucks extra for water if you are watering 2x or 3x times a week, 30min each and more than 3 zones.

We monitor the weather to determine when to water. We got hit once with a giant bill for watering the lawn way to much. Never again.

8 gal/min. X 50 min. X 3 times/wk X 4 wk/month = 4800 gal/month. Yes that sounds plausible. There is no comparison between potable water and irrigation water. You may be watering too much though. Try 2 times per week on the days your area is supposed to water.

Amazing that it costs so much just to water a lawn and shrubs just so it can look pretty. Most of us spend more on care and upkeep of landscaping than we do on electricity and gas utilities.

Looks fairly low

That's about right for 50 minutes 3 times a week. The sprinklers use a lot of water.

We usually use about 7000 gallons so yours sounds reasonable. We water 3x a week 40 minutes each grass zones and 20 minutes each per. 2 different shrub zones. We have St Augustine grass which seems to wilt and stress in these hot months if we didn’t go to 3 days of watering.

Your irrigation usage compared to your potable water usage is totally irrelevant . Also check to see if your irrigation controller is switched to bypass the rain sensor. Your sensor may not work anyway but you can try to manually run the irrigation after a big rain and it won’t run if your sensor is on and in good working order. As others suggested two days a week should be plenty at 50 minutes on three zones total

Any particular brand/model you recommend?

Cindy

Typical irrigation system (or any garden hose) flows at about 9 gallons per minute. So, that's 450 gallons per watering; at 3x / week, that's 1350 gallons / week; at 4 weeks per month, that's 5400 gallons / month.

I think your water bill is spot on.

I have the Hunter X2 controller with the WAND module for wifi connectivity. Others have highly recommended the Rachio controller. In either case, consider installing it yourself - I did not and was surprised how much I was charged for connecting six wires.

I have had a Rachio3 for a couple of years now and I would recommend it. They offer 6, 8, and 16 zone controllers.

I like/use Racchio as well. Pretty smart and intuitive. Mine uses a private weather station a couple of streets over for data. Notifies me when it is skipping watering due to my set conditions of rainfall, wind, temp etc. Best part of a wifi controller for a DIY sprinkler guy - I don’t have to walk back and forth from the garage to run a zone I’m working on👍

Check to see if there is a recommended day and frequency on the door of your controller. Ours has one. It also has a recommendation by month for what to use.

I have seen the wifi - weather recommendation often here. Unless you set up a personal weather station and use that for input, it seems silly. Rain is very often very local. Even if you use the your own station, you still may be watering just in advance of heavy rain, but you won't likely know in advance. KISS.

Good advice on the watering schedules. They can also be found on districtgov.org. (Services->Utilities->Irrigation Schedules)

I do not have a personal weather station. It seems silly to try to compete with all the other stations around and the professional information from the NWS.

As I understand it my Hunter uses a "virtual" station which aggregates information from multiple physical stations in my area as well as professional forecasts to predict what has, or will, happen over my house. It appears to be accurate and has worked well for me.

Another vote for the Rachio controller. I installed mine a couple of years ago, pays for itself in no time. Easy to install. Be sure to take pictures of the Hunter unit and the wiring before you remove it. They go on sale from time to time, and Costco and Sam's have sold them in store and online. Home Depot currently has it on sale.

Water usage
 

Good morning, We had a leak once....and it was 24,000 gallons per month! It looks fine to us, at 5,000... as that really is not a lot.

With the Rachio you have a choice of using a virtual or aggregation of weather stations or any that are close to your house so you can get actual local weather. You can't believe how many private weather stations there are in the Villages. You probably have one or two a block a way or maybe even closer in most areas.

Not exactly. While there is considerable spacial variation in warm season precipitation, on average it evens out. I have my Rachio pointed to the "aggregated data" from various sources and it works out pretty well. A neighbor has a PWS, which uploads data to a website that the Rachio can access, but I choose not to use it since I don't know how reliable it is. My Rachio only irrigated 2 times in June, 4 times in July, and only 1 time, so far, in August. The Rachio runs a soil model so the amount of precipitation, the amount of irrigation, and the forecasted precipitation goes into the decision making for future irrigation.

There should be a schedule in or on your circuit breaker panel to tell you how often to run your system. The villages site tells you how long to run sprays and rotors but the irrigation people are also installing Hunter MP heads. MP heads need to be run 2X the spray time.Check this site to see if your heads are MP heads. Access Denied
You can also do the "Tuna Can Test" to see if you are watering too much. Tuna Can Test - Bermuda Lawn Care - Summer Irrigation Tip - YouTube
You need about 1" per week if your lawn is established.
Another thing you may want to do is break up the time. I have a B-hyve controller and I run zone 1 for 5 minutes then zone 2 for 5 minuets then zone 3 for 5 minutes then zone 4 for 5 minuets then back to zone 1 and continue until each zone has run for 20 minutes total. This way the water soaks in and does not run off. The B-hyve makes all this very easy.Amazon.com

I don't think you have a leak, during the summer I do water 3 times a week and my water bill is always 4000 to 5000 a month. I knew I had a leak last year when suddenly my consumption doubled to 10,000 gallons!

The grass guy said bump it to 3. We have not been getting our normal amounts of rain this summer. The retention pond behind my house is empty and by now there’s usually water. FYI

I have an Orbit B-hyve controller and use a personal weather station that is 2 blocks away. The Rachio has the same capabilities. There are PWSs all over The Villages. If rain is expected the B-hyve puts the irrigation on a 24 hour delay. My system seldom runs in the summer months. And my grass stays green.

Looks normal, cut down on your watering time, also check the programing, may be watering multiple times a cycle.

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If you are in Sumter County, you are only allowed to water twice a week, per the Southwest Florida Water Management District ( Welcome to the Southwest Florida Water Management District Home Page). If you are in Marion and most of Lake counties, you fall under the St. Johns River Water Management District ( Home of the St. Johns River Water Management District). I believe they also require twice a week watering, but you can find out for sure at that website.

I'm amazed at how few people know about these restrictions, let alone what day/time they are supposed to be watering.

New lawns will often be watered more until established. The company that installed your sprinklers and that should have done your "orientation" can be very helpful in knowing what to expect. Personally, I wouldn't rely on water running down the street as an indicator mainly because the "soil" is mostly sand and water runs through it so fast.

No need to water in Summer
 

I think you'll find you are overwatering. You only need to water once a week for most of the year, 40 minutes for lawn, and 15 minutes for scrubs and flowers, and turn off your system for July, August and September, our rainy season. Been here 29 years and my lawn is beautiful.

Same. It works great. Plus,, it will skip watering days if significant rain is in the forecast...

This... I have 5 local weather stations in my immediate neighborhood. The closest is 5-6 houses away.

This restriction is not enforced so many don't care about or know about it.